Over Before It Began
by Diamond.Black
Summary: A Jake and Nessie fanfic based on their growing feelings/relationship and the drama that comes with being a hybrid. Can she get past the imprint thing, and how much more of this too-ing and fro-ing can she take? - CHAPTER 8 UP NOW!
1. Imprisoned

_**A/N: I am not Steph, no matter how cool that would be, and so far I own nothing but the title. And maybe this particular storyline. But thats all, I swear.**_

_**..and I know you've all read this a million times in other stories, but we writers really do like reviews, and the more reviews I get, the more I write.. it spurs me on!**_

_**I have a pretty good feeling about this one. I think its going to be lengthy.. let me know in your reviews whether you prefer shorter or longer chapters..**_

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So... it was a sunny 31 degrees celcius, beautiful bright blue sunny sky. My skin had a glossy pearly sheen to it as it always did in direct sunlight. To humans, I looked radiant, glowing even. I loved the sun, or at least I tried to tell myself that. I don't tan, but neither does the rest of my family. See, we are Vampire. Momma, Daddy, Gran, Pa, Aunt Alice, Uncle Jazz, Aunt Rose, Uncle Em... They all sparkle in the sunlight. Kind of like when you shine a torch on a faceted diamond. But not me. I was _different_. I can go where I want, when I want, within reason.

Yeah, right.

I need protection everywhere I go. I haven't spent a moment on my own since the day I was born. The only person I don't mind watching over me, is My Jake.

We are a rare kind of vampire. We are a family, not a coven. And we don't drink human blood; or at least, we _try_ not to. Remind me to tell you a funny story about when Uncle Jazz and I went hunting, one day. It's funny, I promise...

So anyway, we drink animal blood. Daddy likes Mountain Lion, of which there are zilch around here. Momma likes what daddy likes. I like Kangaroo right now, but mostly I just eat what's available.

I'm a hybrid – A half-n-half. Kind of like a pizza; a half human, half vampire, hold the onion kind of pizza. A Renesmee-Carlie-Cullen-but-if-you're-nice-i'll-let-you-call-me-Nessie kind of pizza. Momma was still human when she and daddy conceived me. Daddy says he tried really hard to talk Momma out of having me, because I was hurting her so much, and very likely to kill her, but he always swears that he doesn't regret that she wouldn't budge on her decision. He and Momma love me, I know they do.

Then there's my extended family. My Jacob, Leah and Seth. They are shapeshifters, or wolves. MY Wolves. MY Protectors. There were a lot more of them, I've met them once or twice, but then we moved here, to Australia and we'd had to say goodbye to most of our friends. I'm still not sure why Jake, Leah and Seth came with us, actually.

Jake would never let anything happen to me though. He is very good at his job; protecting me. I guess he takes it pretty seriously, because it's extremely rare for him to leave my side. This was one of those rare times, because as I look around me now, he is nowhere to be seen. In fact, I hadn't seen him all morning, and the sun was now high in the sky, so it must be going on noon.

Despite the gorgeous weather, I sat solemnly on my bed, staring at the grey that was my bedroom wall. I had a huge wall of double glazed glass windows (not that the double glazing would stop anything if they wanted to get to me) and three walls that just looked blergh and dreary, painted grey. Emotionally, I felt a very similar shade of grey slowly fogging up my mind. _This_ was my own personal Hell.

Ok, so I deserved it. I was _banished_. Sentenced to an eternity of boredom in my bedroom.

I knew it was for my own protection and that I had already done the wrong thing, but hey, what's a girl to do, you know?

Gran had designed this amazing house for us, with massive glass walls, hidden beneath the canopy of the trees, far away from direct sunlight and prying human eyes. Here, in this isolated space in 'sunny Australia', humans rarely came close to our hidey hole, and when they did their natural instinct for self preservation usually told them to run away, as fast as they could. Not that their legs could outrun even me, and I was the slowest of all of them, if one of us decided on a change of diet. Not that we would. That would undo all of Pa's hard work.

Right now though, I didn't care. I could _hear_ the human, and I just wanted to go outside, to play, to frolic, to do whatever normal people do on a day like this, but it was useless. As long as there was someone or something out there, someone we didn't know, I was banished to the interior, and sometimes, I even had the 'privilege' of hiding in the wine cellar. That was usually pretty fun, considering vamps don't drink the usual beverages, but I can. Leah and I got stuck into a bottle in the wine cellar a few weeks ago. We had a giggly afternoon. That ended in disaster when daddy realised what we'd been up to.

I needed to hunt. Jacob had to be around somewhere, or Leah even. Leah and I actually got along pretty well now, since we were both 'freaks of nature'. She used to hate me, but she says that I don't have the same stench as the vamps do, and that to her, I actually smell pretty nice, which is good, I think. Apparently, now that she has gotten to know me better over the last few years, being friends with me is much easier, and she seems to have mellowed out a lot too.

So. Here Jakey Jakey. Here boy! Where are you? I laughed mentally at my cheeky humour.

Where was the boy? It's so unlike him to be missing in action. I hope it's nothing too serious. I tried 'channeling' him. All I got was a slight hum, which I recognised as my mothers mental voice, and then Aunt Alice who was agonising over the color pairings of her clothes in her wardrobe _again_.

Daddy can't read momma's mind, but I can. I was very smug about it too. We discovered last year, when I reached full maturity (7 Human Years, 17 Nessie Years) that my gift had reached its full potential. I had just blown out the candles on the massive cake that Aunt Alice got me, always the one to prepare a rip-roaring party. She had flown in a gathering of our friends on the family jet (all vamps, of course) to help me celebrate. I made a wish, and the next thing I knew, I was jumping up and down, clapping my hands like a school kid, shouting "I love it momma, thank you thank you thank you!" Then we realised that she hadn't actually said anything. We looked at each other, then at daddy, then momma turned to Eleazar, and I turned to Jacob. I know the shock on my face mirrored the shock on his.

***

"Renesmee, sweetheart, what?" momma said.

"The ring? That you and daddy got me. Of course I love it. It's beautiful. Thank You!" I grinned at momma. She had said that it was the same as the heart on her bracelet, and that daddy's grandmother had owned it. Of course it was different, beautiful, exquisite, and sparkly. All of the things that represented my family.

"I haven't given that to you yet," momma said, bluntly. She had a glazed look in her eyes, like she was here, in this room with us, but her mind wasn't.

"Yes, you did, momma. You said it just now. You were wondering if I would like it". Jacob squeezed my shoulder lightly. I glanced up at him, and he looked... _worried? _ How odd!

"No, Renesmee. I _thought_ it."

Oh.

The crowd parted, and, too quickly for human eyes, momma and daddy were in front of me.

"Carlisle, could we, ah, borrow you, for a sec?" Jacob asked Pa, quietly. It had taken me a second longer than usual to realise, but it would seem that I had just read mommas mind, which seemed unlikely, since nobody else could. But she said so herself. She _thought_ it.

Pa asked me to accompany him to his study. I followed quietly, while the others stayed behind and spoke with some of the guests. I know momma was eager to speak with Eleazar, because I had _heard_ her thinking it. This was going to take some getting used to.

I took up my usual position, in the soft chair usually reserved for me. I was, after all, half human, and couldn't sit still for as long as the vamps could, so providing me with a comfortable chair was necessary. I spent a lot of time in Pa's study, reading his big medical books, passing the time. I also had ample tests done on me in here, due to the rapid nature of my growth, so I was familiar with the routine.

"What happened, Nessie?" asked Pa.

"I – I'm not really sure, to be honest, Pa. One minute the room was silent, the next, I could _hear_ people, but their lips weren't moving. I could hear momma mostly, but I could also hear Aunt Rose like a whirring noise in the background," I said, in silent amazement.

"Nessie, what were you doing when this happened?"

"Blowing out my candles, making a wish, standing around the table, thinking about how amazing it was that everybody was here tonight with me..." Pa cut me off.

"What did you wish for, sweetheart?"

"Um, I don't think I'm supposed to tell you Pa, or it won't come true," I said. I could feel the corners of my lips tugging upwards into a cheeky grin. The same cheeky grin that daddy gives to momma sometimes.

"Was it anything to do with your gift, Renesmee?"

"NO! Of course not! It was completely innocent! I wished for a horse! Like all seven year old girls, I want a horse," I said, hurt that Pa would think I would wish for something so selfish. "Only, I don't want to ride it. I want to drain it," I giggled. Pa laughed.

_I hope she's fine. I couldn't live without her, surely if there was something the matter with her, it wouldn't be her gift that was affected._

I could hear Jacob's mental voice debating internally about what it was that was causing my gift to 'play up' like this. Normally, I only had to place a hand on somebody's face and I could project my thoughts and emotions into them. It was really easy to show people what I meant that way, so things I saw didn't get misinterpreted. I preferred to speak that way, but if a human saw me do it, I'd be locked up in a mental facility.

"Knock knock," a deep voice said softly.

"Come in, Jacob," I said.

"Nessie, I just wanted to let you know that some of the guests are leaving. Eleazar is going to stick around to have a chat with you shortly, when Carlisle lets you out of here, okay?" Jacob eyed me curiously. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again.

"Jake, I'm fine. As it so happens, I can hear peoples thoughts, telepathically. There's nothing wrong with me, is there Pa?" I said, before he could hesitate anymore. I looked to Grandpa Carlisle for his approval.

"Not that I can see, everything looks fine to me. You should have stopped growing now, and you're technically 17 years old now, so you'll be considered an adult. Other than that, it looks like you've gained an extra gift. Nothing to worry about at all," he grinned.

"So there," I said, poking out my tongue like a child. "Just, try to control your thoughts around me, will you? I don't need to know about your thoughts about the female population around here. Warn Seth, too. I don't want to know. I'll talk to daddy about it and see if he can give me some pointers on how he handles the mind reading stuff." I pushed Jacob out the door, following closely behind him. I had shocked him, obviously. He was never normally this quiet, but he did a superb job of keeping his thoughts to himself.

We walked down the staircase and glanced around. The room was much emptier now, but was just as loud as it was before. The voices were getting louder in my head, and there was more of them than before.

Momma and daddy were standing with Eleazar and his mate, Carmen. All four were looking at me expectantly. We walked to them, always at my normal vampire speed, unless there are humans amongst us, and wrapped my arms around momma in a gentle hug. Eleazar grasped my hand.

"Yes, she is a special one, isn't she?" He mumbled, more to himself than to anybody else. Aunt Alice and Aunt Rose joined us then. They both had worried looks on their faces, and everyone was looking expectantly at Aunt Alice.

"What?" she asked, bewildered. "You know I can't 'see' her!" she said, then grinned. "Or the dog," she added as an afterthought, looking at Jacob. Aunt Alice had always been blind when it came to Jacob and I because we were technically 'breeds' which shouldn't exist. As was she, however she could still 'see' humans and vampires when they made decisions to do something, because they were a species that she was familiar with.

Jacob looked to Eleazor. "What is it?" he asked.

"She is very rare..." he started to say.

"Of course she's rare! There's only one other like her that we know of, and maybe a few more if Joachim wasn't stopped by the Volturi," Aunt Rosalie spat.

"Let him finish," daddy said, silencing her with a glare.

"As I began, she is very rare. No other has been known to be able to transmit thoughts and feelings by a touch to the face, yet she can. We all know that Jasper is able to control emotions, but that's the closest we've ever gotten to a similarity," he said, looking at me.

"Please go on," daddy said.

Eleazor nodded briefly before turning back to me. "Of course, she already knows all of this. Her mother has an impenetrable shield, which up until now, we thought nobody could get through, but as it turns out, Renesmee can."

Momma nodded for him to go on.

"But now, she reads minds also, like her father. That much is obvious. There is nothing wrong with her gifts, they have just come to full power now that she is of age." Eleazor finished, matter-of-factly.

"So, is the change permanent?" Jacob asked. Until now, he had stood silently at the edge of our small gathering, just listening.

"Yes, Jacob." Eleazar wrinkled his nose ever so slightly whenever he spoke to our wolves. They smelt differently to the full vamps than they did to me.

***

So that was how we came to discover that I wasn't sick, not dying, not changing, not ageing, just a fully grown hybrid Nessie with a knack for reading minds and transporting feelings and emotions into others. Cool, huh?

I still needed to hunt, and I could still only hear my mother's mental voice.

So anyway, where _is_ he?

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_**Review please!**_


	2. Not the time

_**A/N: I am not Steph, no matter how cool that would be, and so far I own nothing but the title. And maybe this particular storyline. But thats all, I swear.**_

_**..and I know you've all read this a million times in other stories, but we writers really do like reviews, and the more reviews I get, the more I write.. it spurs me on!**_

_**Thanks to Shiny Otter, who gave me my VERY FIRST REVIEW!! **_

_**I have a pretty good feeling about this one. I think it's going to be lengthy.. let me know in your reviews whether you prefer shorter or longer chapters..**_

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Brown-green-brown-green-brown-green-brown-brown-brown-red-brown-green-black-brown-brown...

The tree's and local flora flew past me in a blur as I ran with all my might. I had smelt it, Leah had seen it, and between the two of us, we were determined to catch it before it got to us, or worse, to Ness.

I watched in the pack mind as Leah flew past another blur of brown and green. Brown-green-brown-green-brown-brown-brown-white... Wait, white? White! I threw my head back and sung to the sky; I howled.

_I see it, Leah. I'm on my way! Don't let it get away!_ I thought at her.

Leah and I were patrolling when I first caught the scent of an unfamiliar vampire. It was important that Ness didn't know exactly how much danger she was in. Her blood didn't smell as appetising to a vamp as a humans blood did, but we still chased vamps away maybe once a week. It scared me that they even got this close, but having Alice on our side usually gave us a head start.

We had left Bella and Esme at home with Seth in his wolf form so we could easily communicate with them, through the pack mind. Bella drew the short straw when we made the decision on who would stay with Ness while the rest of us chased our anonymous friend, so she stayed this time, and Esme was no fighter. Edward always came with us since he could relay our thoughts to the other Cullens, and neither Leah nor I would back down when it came to helping My Ness. No one loved Nessie as much as I did, except maybe her parents, but Leah certainly cared a great deal for her. They had grown very close over the past seven years. The others wanted to help Nessie of course, but they were mostly in it for the shredding and burning.

_Leah,_ I thought absent-mindedly. _Are we doing the right thing, do you think? _

_Of course we are, Jake! We always chase away the bad guys! Geez, what's gotten in to you, man?_ Leah thought back at me.

_No, not about chasing the bloodsuckers. I'm always up for a good fight. Not that. I mean, not telling Ness. I mean, maybe we should tell her..._

My thought was interrupted by a low growl behind me. I immediately smelt the sickly sweet burned-down-sugar-factory smell and turned, ready to pounce. Edward was there.

_Dammit, Edward! What have I told you about sneaking up on a wolf in the middle of a chase?_ I growled.

"You. Will. Not tell my daughter anything, understood?" he growled in response. He turned and vanished into the bushlands behind us without waiting for a reply.

_There's your answer, Jakey boy_, Leah smirked internally.

I sighed and kept up the chase. I could smell Emmett somewhere nearby. Surely he would have the bloodsucker in his sights.

_Look, Jake. We know how much she means to you, how much you love her, but none of us want anything to happen to her either. We've still got Alice's visions to rely on, and they haven't let us down yet. Short of leaving again, there isn't a whole lot we can do,_ Leah thought.

_We could tell her_, I sulked. I knew I was grumpy, and I knew I wasn't doing anyone any good like this, but I didn't care. I'd had enough of the games. I needed to catch me a bloodsucker.

_Last one to catch the bloodsucker's gonna be vampire bait!_ Leah laughed, just as the others rounded the corner. She yapped loudly, one short bark that sounded more like a laugh. She bolted past me, faster than she had ever run before.

_Dammit, Leah! _I growled as I sprinted past her. _Now is NOT the time!_

"I'm in!" Edward shouted as he rounded Leah up. "Catch me if you can!"

_Yeah, it IS the time, Jake. We lost the bloodsucker. We gotta get back to the house before it does. Seth, you there, bro? _Leah said.

_Yeah, Lee Lee. I got all that, I'll let Bells know. _Seth's mental voice was loud and clear, showing a hint of authority. I saw the white and grey blur that were the walls of the Cullen house, through Seths eyes as he left to find Bella. Both Leah and I felt relieved when we felt Seth phase back to human.

*****

Ever since we had moved to Australia, we found things were a little more difficult to how it was back home, in Forks, Washington. The sun was always shining here, and although we were in the middle of a drought, it was still beautiful land. Emmett and Nessie enjoyed playing with the Kangaroos and wrestling with the Crocodile's, while the Emu's were fast. Those two never had been content with just catching and eating their food. I even caught blondie draining a lizard the other day, though I'll keep that cherished memory for a day when I can use it to its full extent.

We weren't too far from a town, only about 792km from Coober Pedy, a small opal mining town. We could run there in a couple of hours, but it was dessert land so not a lot of cover, which meant we were pretty much restricted to the great indoors. But where we were, it was much safer for Ness. Australia had the lowest population of vampires due to the lack of tasty humans, and huge amount of sunshine. We didn't need humans, we just needed animals.

Although we were amongst the lowest bloodsucker population, we had still chased off far too many of them for my liking. Alice had seen them all coming though, thankfully.

******

I felt the air change as Alice flew past us and into the house faster than we had ever seen her move before. We hurried behind her, assuming something was wrong.

"Nessie! What have you done?" Alice screeched. "There was nothing wrong with those pumps!"

"Aunt Alice, they were a broken ankle waiting to happen! I am half of my mother remember? I break! Easily!" Nessie said as she threw the slashed pumps at the doorway where Alice was standing. "It's an improvement!"

"No, Nessie! You're being horrible!" Alice dry-sobbed.

"I know, Aunt Alice," Nessie whispered with her head dipped low. "I – I'm just so bored here, you know? I'm sorry, I really am." Nessie's voice was filled with so much remorse. I watched from her doorway, over Alice's shoulder, as a single fresh tear spilled onto Nessie's cheek. Her eyes were red and swollen, but I still believed that they were the most beautiful, most fascinating, deepest brown eyes I had ever seen. I couldn't just stand there and watch while my Nessie cried. She was so sad. It was unusual for her parents not to be hovering when she was upset, but I guess Edward had probably worked out what was wrong before we'd even gotten home. Bells always just did whatever Edward did.

Without Edward nearby, I felt a little more _free_ to do what I wanted. I pushed past Alice and looked expectantly at Nessie. I couldn't just throw myself at her; that would be too obvious, so I waited for her invitation. Nessie looked up at me with her big brown eyes. She burst in to tears and ran in to my waiting arms. I sat on her huge bed and pulled her onto my lap, curling her knees up into a ball.

"Shhh, Ness. It's okay," I soothed. I didn't want her to stop crying, that was never my intention. I was just trying to calm her. I slowly rocked her back and forth and gently rubbed her back. My other hand was caught up in the mass of bronze tangles that was her hair. We stayed like this for what could have been minutes, or hours. I'm not sure. I was just happy to be the one to sooth her. Eventually, she fell asleep in my arms, occasionally sobbing in her sleep. I heard her heartbeat slow a little, and her breath was no longer coming in sharp bursts. I laid her down on the bed, very gently, and lay down next to her. I knew she wouldn't mind, we'd done this before. I needed to think, and here, in her room, next to My Ness, was as good a place as any.

*****

Six years ago:

"Jaaa-cob!" Nessie called as she watched me jog out of the tree line of the forest back home in Forks. "Come play!" She was holding her arms up in the air like any normal small child would, expecting me to come and scoop her up. Usually I would, but today, I had other ideas. I crouched low, and barrelled myself across the ground at her, grabbing her and throwing her onto my back as we dashed back in to the forest, with Edward hot on our heels.

"Jacob, put her down right this minute!" he shouted. Emmett was roaring with laughter back at the house; we were still close enough that I could hear it. Nessie squealed loudly as I spun around and threw her in the air, catching her gently and placing her on the ground under a small sapling. I settled on the ground next to her just as Edward caught up to us.

"That was not at all funny Jacob. Come on Nessie, back to the big house for you," he said, just as Nessie flung herself backwards onto a pile of leaves.

"Look, daddy! Look what My Jacob got for me!" she squealed as she threw the leaves in the air. Edward scowled at me. She either missed it, or made a point of not letting us see that she'd noticed our little exchange.

Really, she was just like any other toddler, only instead of being one year old, like she was supposed to be, she was about three years old. That was one of the benefits-slash-downfalls of being a hybrid, I guess. Accelerated growth.

When she was one, I loved the feeling of being able to make her so happy.

Five years ago:

"Daddy, I want Jacob to be my teacher now. I don't want Aunt Rose to do it anymore. She just teaches me about make-up and stuff, and I don't want to learn about that. I want to learn like normal people do," Nessie had said, after a particularly gruelling fashion and textiles class with blondie and Alice.

"I'm sure Jacob has other things to worry about than being your teacher every day, Renesmee," Edward laughed.

"Edward, it's fine, really. I could teach her math. I really was pretty good at that, at school, you know. It wasn't all that long ago, I'm sure she'll pick it up." I always knew all the right things to say. I neglected to mention that I would probably be teaching her about the mechanics of a car at the same time.

Ness laughed, and clapped her hands together twice. "Super! All settled, I'll see you after breakfast tomorrow," she said.

When she was two, I loved the feeling of being able to make her so happy.

Four years ago:

It was drizzling outside, and the wolves had just finished patrolling. Edward and Bella had run with us this time, just because they could, and it passed the time. We wandered inside and found Ness sitting on the soft plush white couch with her head resting on a pillow against blondie's shoulder. She looked up when we came through the door.

"Jakey!" she cried. "What took you so long?" She leapt in to my waiting arms.

"Just locking down the area." I winked at her, so she got the joke. It was a line from one of her favourite movies. She grinned up at me and snuggled closer.

When she was three, I loved the feeling of being able to make her so happy.

Three years ago:

"Rack off Uncle Emmett!" Nessie screeched, as she bolted past the rest of the family, her cheeks beet red.

"Emmett, you _have_ to stop embarrassing her like that! I know you haven't been a teenager for several years, but things like that affect teenage girls!" Edward scolded. Emmett had been teasing her about the cabbage patch dolls in her room, which she still refused to throw away.

"I'll go," I said, when Bella got up to check on Nessie. Bella gave me one of those looks that said 'you're overstepping your mark', but we both knew I wasn't. She would be comforted by me. That's just the kind of friendship we had.

I found her hiding in the closet in Alice's room; an unlikely location because of the masses of silk, satin and lace, but nevertheless, that's where she was.

"I'm sorry about Emmett," I said to her quietly, as I sank in to the cushion next to her.

"What do you mean, Jacob?" She looked puzzled.

"I mean, I'm sorry that when he was made vampire, he was reborn without a brain." I grinned at her. It didn't make her laugh like I intended, but it made her smile.

"He can hear you, you know," she whispered.

"Let's race," I said, as I pulled her quickly to her feet. "Quickly, Ness, before he comes after me for the brainless comment!" I feined fear.

Ness laughed. That's all I wanted to hear. And I knew she loved to race.

When she was four, I loved the feeling of being able to make her so happy.

Two years ago:

"Jake, do you want anything in particular to eat for dinner? Gran's going to teach me how to cook, and since the wolves and I are the only ones who eat, I figured I'd just ask you what you wanted." Nessie always knew how to make me happy.

"Nah, Ness, just whatever you feel like is fine," I replied. I would have a loved a good veal scallopini, but I didn't want to make it too hard for Ness. We'd been saving the carcass after the vamps drained the blood from them, so we could have the meat. Ness still enjoyed meals in both the human and vampire forms, but even so, if Ness didn't want the meat, the wolves sure did.

"Thanks Jake, veal it is then!" she laughed. How _did_ she do that? She always knew what I wanted, even when I didn't verbalise it! She casually wrapped her little arms around me. She was five years old now, with a body and a mind of a fifteen year old, and an attitude to match.

"Can't wait for tea, Ness," I said, winking at her, and I heard her heartbeat accelerate slightly. Wonder what that was all about?

When she was five, I loved the feeling of being able to make her so happy.

One year ago:

"Jacob?" Nessie asked as she settled on the knot of our piece of driftwood at La Push beach. We were visiting my dad on a rare trip home, from Australia.

"Yeah, sweetheart?" I looked at her, perched perfectly next to me, one leg crossed neatly over the other. I was still getting used to the young woman who grew so quickly before my eyes. She was six now, but she had the appearance and brains of a sixteen year old. Luckily her growth had slowed over the last year, although it wouldn't fully stop until she was seven.

"Can you take me to the cliffs tomorrow, please? I wanna do that thing that I saw Jared doing with Kim," she said.

"Yeah, okay." I would always give her everything she wanted. My life, if she wanted it. We sat and watched the sun set slowly over the horizon.

"Thanks, Jake." She yawned then, and I knew she was overdue for some sleep. We were still on Australian time, so it was hard for us.

"Sleep time for the human," I laughed, as my stomach rumbled.

Nessie laughed harder than I'd heard her laugh in a long time.

"And dinner time for the wolf!" she chuckled.

When she was six, I loved the feeling of being able to make her so happy.

Now:

What the hell is wrong with me? She's my imprint for pete's sake! I'm certainly not doing anything wrong, and I even have the blessing of Edward and Bells! I love her more than life itself, would give her my own life if she asked for it. Edward once told me that I would know when the time was right; when I would tell her about my imprint. I just don't know if now is that time. She's old enough to handle the truth, but I want her to be able to choose. She may not feel the same way about me. I don't want to force her into anything.

I drifted off to sleep thinking about Ness and her amazing brown eyes, but I was jerked violently awake by her soft voice. She was awake and looking up at me coyly.

"Thanks for taking care of me, Jacob," she whispered. "You always do."

I stroked her head tenderly. "It's ok sweetheart. I know it's not easy for you, not knowing why it's so important for you stay out of the way. I wish we could tell you more."

I could feel her in my head, so I changed my train of thought. _Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it. Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it. _

"I'm a simple girl, Jacob. I don't need big, fancy things. But I do need you," Nessie purred. This was too good to be true. I grasped her upper arms gently and drew her towards me.

"Say it again, Ness," I demanded. Her eyes were wild with desire and they were looking deep in to mine. She puckered her lips and tilted her head back to look up at me. She was sexy as hell, my Ness. The wolf in me was only a fraction of a second away from throwing her on the bed.

Then I woke up.

Yikes! Holy crow! Dreams like that should be illegal. I rolled onto my back and smiled at the ceiling. I'd had similar dreams before, but nothing this intense. Maybe it was her scent, so concentrated, so close beside me, that made it so... so....... so awesome! I chuckled.

I rolled to face her again, and saw her big beautiful brown eyes looking up at me through her tired lids. Her cheeks were flushed, I assume as a result of having just woken up. She smiled the same coy, cheeky smile as the one in my dream, and slowly sat up. I hope she couldn't 'hear' dreams, coz that could be embarrassing.

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***Review review review, please!**

**I will update again in a couple of days, i'm writing this as i'm going, and I have a university essay due next week, a test coming up that i should be studying for, and exams in a month............**

**Doh!  
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	3. Who cares a lot?

_**A/N: I am not Steph, no matter how cool that would be, and so far I own nothing but the title. And maybe this particular storyline. But thats all, I swear. I don't even own the idea of putting lyrics at the start of my story, which belongs to IndependanceIndividuality, who is part of the inspiration for my fanfic.**_

_**..and I know you've all read this a million times in other stories, but we writers really do like reviews, and the more reviews I get, the more I write.. it spurs me on!**_

_**I forgot to mention that the last chapter was in Jakes point of view, but then you probably worked that out for yourselves..**_

_**..and as always, i hope you enjoy what you read.. let me know in your reviews whether you prefer shorter or longer chapters..**_

_**I apologise that this is a shorter chapter, however there is more coming.. I split the chapter in to two because I needed to add another persons POV in the middle, so thought I would just stop the chapter.. **_

_**..and on the upside, i finished my History essay, which is entitled "Empires Lie at the Heart of Globalisation". It was horrible to write.**_

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_How can I decide whats right__  
When you're clouding up my mind?__  
I can't win your losing fight  
All the time._

_-- Decode – Paramore_

_(from the original twilight soundtrack)_

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**Renesmee**

I lay in a dreamlike state for a little while, not properly awake but not properly sleeping either. I was scared, sad, but mostly ashamed. Earlier today I had thrown a severed shoe at my aunts head, before collapsing in Jacobs arms in hysterics. What on Earth must he think of me now? I behaved like a child, surely he must think of me as one. It's just so damn _boring_ here! There was nothing to do, I could go outside but can't go anywhere unless I want to run for half the day, and even then, I couldn't really run for fear of being seen by someone. I always had to have someone with me, and usually it wasn't one of the vamps because it was too sunny here, all the time.

So what must he think of me? I had never felt that I needed Jacob's approval; he was my best friend, but nothing more.

Since my birthday though, I just felt like I needed more from him; like I wasn't complete unless _we_ were more. How was I supposed to tell him that though, without scaring the bejesus out of him and making him run a mile. He only saw me as his friend, I could see that. He looked at me with admiration, but as far as I could tell, that was all. Trust me, I had spent enough hours searching his eyes for more than that, and reading his body language, but I had come up empty.

It was Jacobs voice that woke me properly.

_...don't think about it, don't think about it._

Don't think about it? Don't think about what? I quickly blocked Jacob's thoughts, and turned to look at him. Only then did I realise that he was still asleep. He must be dreaming.

Daddy had told me over and over again, that I had the almost unique ability to intrude on other peoples thoughts, and thus, their privacy. I think he just didn't like the idea that now his thoughts were no longer private. He also told me that after a while it can actually be rather hard on the head, and that I should make a conscious effort to block everyones thoughts. So, I did.

Jacobs eyelids fluttered in his sleep. It was the cutest thing ever, and he made a little moaning noise that I would pay money to hear again. He rolled on to his back. His eyes sprung open and he grinned at the ceiling. I felt my cheeks heat up as I thought about his grin, and the things I could do to those lips, if he would let me. It made me weak at the knees, that smile did. He rolled his head towards me, and I looked at him. His cheeks flushed a little, and I smiled.

"I'm really sorry about before, Jake," I said. I really was sorry, more sorry than he could know. I would have to apologise to Aunt Alice, too. He looked at me with confusion. His fingers laced around mine affectionately.

"When I chucked a tantrum like a two year old, remember?" I clarified. Jacob brushed a strand of hair away from my eyes with the hand that was intertwined with mine, and I shivered as his fingers touched my skin.

"It's ok, sweetheart. We're all entitled to a little meltdown every now and then."

_...Can't believe they got so close to the house, this isn't good... _I heard Jacob's inner turmoil, loud and clear, even though I was actively trying to tune it out.

I sat up on the bed and crossed my legs. "Jacob?" I said.

"Yeah?"

"Who got so close, and what isn't good?" I asked.

Jacob looked down, and I saw his adams apple bob up and down as he swallowed hard. He picked at the little pills in the fabric of my doona. He looked like he was debating with himself whether he should tell me the _truth_?

"Jake, look at me. You know I'll find out eventually," I said softly, ducking my head and looking up at him through my lashes. "You can't guard all your thoughts forever."

"Dammit, Ness. I promised your dad I wouldn't tell you, and the last thing I need is to get my ass kicked by Edward!" Jacob growled. He jumped to his feet and started pacing beside my bed.

I decided that since I was acting like a two year old, I would do it properly. I jumped to my feet next to him, and threw my pillow on the floor with enough force to split it open. I may only be half-vampire, but I've still got more strength than 10 of your average humans put together.

"DAD!" I yelled unnecessarily. I knew he would hear me, even if I had spoken at my normal volume. In fact, he was probably expecting me, because no doubt he would have listened in on the-whole-bloody-conversation!

I stormed out of the room, leaving Jacob behind, staring after me anxiously.

***

**JACOBS POV.**

"Renesmee, this is not something I am prepared to talk to you about, just yet." Edward was standing his ground. He glared at me as I entered the room behind Ness.

"Aren't I entitled to know how _my_ life is being affected?" Ness demanded.

"Of course, Renesmee, and as soon as we know anything concrete, we will tell you. However, right now, there is nothing to tell. You are safe as long as we are around, or the Pack is here." Edward paused. "I will, however, tell you what you already know. You are different, Renesmee; special. Not exactly one of a kind, you are one half of two of a kind. And it is not just vampires that you need to be aware of. There are other creatures out there."

Ness rocked back on her heels, clearly shocked, and looked at me. She was whiter than I had ever seen her, and that was saying something.

Then she fainted.

I was by her side faster than Edward was, and caught her before she hit the ground. In one swift movement though, Edward had thrown me across the room, my back hitting the opposite wall. He caught Ness as she rolled out of my arms.

"Renesmee? Nessie! Wake up honey. Carlisle!" Edward called, softly but clearly. He cradled her carefully against his chest as he ran with her out the door. Away from me.

I couldn't have that. "Edward, wait for me," I called as I sprinted after them.

I felt, rather than saw, the other vamps run past me to Nessie's room.

When I arrived in Ness's room, she was groaning and slowly sitting up where Edward had placed her, in her bed, propping herself up on her elbows.

Ignoring the gaggle of vampires who were now hovering around her bed, I pushed my way through.

"Are you ok, sweetheart?" I soothed as I brushed her hair back off her face.

_Oh, God. Don't let it be anything serious. I couldn't bear to lose her. Not now, not when I'm this close. _My thoughts were nothing, if not serious. Edward glared at me.

"She will be fine, Jacob," he growled softly.

"Jacob?" Nessie groaned.

"Yeah, darl, I'm here," I answered, wrapping my big arms around her small shoulders.

"I'm ok, just, I dunno, I – I don't feel right," she said.

"Carlisle?" Bella started. The unspoken question hung in the air.

He placed a cool hand on Ness's forehead and took some blood from her arm, like usual.

"I'll go test these, but I think she'll be fine. She just needs some rest and a cool shower. It's quite warm here, and with her elevated body temperature I think she is having trouble adjusting to the Australian summer," Carlisle said.

"Out, dog," Blondie hissed, pointing to the door. I had no idea why, until I realised Ness was unbuttoning her shirt.

"Oh, right," I grinned. "Sleep, I got it." I raised my hand and saluted at Alice and Ness, then turned and gave Blondie a middle-finger solute.

"That is no way to treat a lady," she hissed. Then she sprung. I quickly closed the door behind me and heard a crunch on the other side, and a muted 'stupid mutt', but the best thing I heard was Ness's hysterical laughing. It was the sweetest thing I had heard all day. I grinned and walked away.

I needed to speak to the pack, anyway. Well, it was Leah I wanted to speak to, but anyway, same difference.

I jogged down the stairs and tagged Edward on my way down.

"I'm gonna sort this out, Edward. I can't stand to see her so distressed anymore. I'll be back," I yelled as I ran out the front door, stripping my shorts off as I went. Edward had seen it all before. Who cares!

"Jacob," I heard, as I leapt through mid-air, phasing. "Don't do anything rash!"

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**Sorry, but REVIEW PLEASE!**


	4. Realisations

_**A/N: I am not Steph, no matter how cool that would be, and so far I own nothing but the title, and maybe this particular storyline. But that's all, I swear. **_

_**..and I know you've all read this a million times in other stories, but we writers really do like reviews, and the more reviews I get, the more I write.. it spurs me on!**_

_**CharlotteWebber writes a beautiful Leah Clearwater in her fic, Life Sucks and then you live forever.. so she is my inspiration for this chapter, because I honestly believe that Leah is well and truly under-appreciated..**_

_**The lyrics for this chapter are from the song Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley. It's actually about a suicide note, however I thought Leah's loneliness in this chapter was fitting. She kind of considers herself to be that 'heartbreak hotel', and is still lonely after Sam left her for Emily.**_

_**Personally, I'm still kind of mad at Sam for that..**_

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Hey now, if your baby leaves you,  
And you got a tale to tell.  
Just take a walk down lonely street  
To heartbreak hotel.

-- Heartbreak Hotel, by Elvis Presley.

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**Leah Clearwaters POV**

_Leah! I need to talk to you. _ Jake's mental voice sounded anguished.

How many bloody times had I heard that before? Actually, not too many. Nobody ever wanted to talk to me, and it didn't matter anyway because in the pack mind you could talk to one wolf, and broadcast to the rest of them unintentionally.

_What's up, Jake? Ness ok? _ As soon as I asked, I saw the images in Jake's head, of Ness falling, Edward throwing Jake against the wall, Ness's limp body.

_Woah, man! What happened?_ I asked.

_Yeah, she had a fainting spell, that's all. But that's not what I want to talk to you about. Can you phase human so I can talk to you without everyone else around?_

Everyone else being my brother, Seth. We were a small pack, but we had been able to absorb Sam's until we left the Continental U. S.

I nodded once, a quick, small tilt of my head. _Turn around then, perv! _

Jake and I both turned away from each other, and we phased back to our human forms. I untied the breezy lime summer dress that was rolled up around my ankle and pulled it over my head. When I turned around, Jake was facing away from me with his cut-offs already pulled up over his hips.

I tapped him on the shoulder twice.

"You can turn around now, Jake," I said. Privacy was a big thing between the three of us. Being a shape shifter meant that we spent a good portion of our time being naked, so we tried not to intrude if we could help it.

"Thanks, Leah," Jake said. "I just wanted to talk to you about Ness, ya know?" He kicked at the dirt with his bare toe. "I just thought, that, well, you might be able to offer up a female perspective on the, ah, situation?"

I drew in a deep breath. My heart dropped. This was going to be a painful conversation, I could tell.

"What situation, Jake?" I let out the deep breath. I knew exactly what _situation_ he was talking about, I just didn't want to face up to it.

"The imprint thing, duh." Jake threw his hands up in the air.

"Jake, if you're going to talk to me like I'm an idiot, then why bother?" I huffed. I started walking into the bush. I heard Jake following me before he grabbed my arm, just above the elbow.

"Look, sorry, 'k? I just don't know what to do, anymore!" Jake sighed, and dropped to his knees in the dirt. I knelt beside him, crouching carefully on my knees.

"Jake," I sighed. "I don't know a lot about this imprint thing, ya know? I haven't imprinted, I'm probably never gonna imprint. How am I supposed to help _you_?"

"You know Ness almost as well as I do," he said, matter of factly. "So I just thought, that, well, maybe you could help me work this out." He shrugged.

We sat in awkward silence for a minute. I picked at some wattle that had fallen off a nearby tree, and tossed it at Jake. He sneezed, one of those big, loud sneezes that makes you think he had just blown snot everywhere.

I cracked up laughing. That eased the tension a little. So then, I spoke.

"Okay, so what's up?" I asked.

"First, you need to bless me," Jake said.

"Bless you? What the hell, Jake?" I was flabbergasted.

"Yeah, bless me for sneezing. If you don't, then superstition says that the spirits of all of my evil demons come out with the sneeze, and kill those around me, so you better do it, Leah." Jake was grinning, so I wasn't too concerned about his frame of mind. I still thought he was bordering on insanity though.

"Um, 'k? Bless you?" I said, cautiously.

"Thank you."

He was silent for a minute more, before he finally blurted it out.

"I'm in love with her, Leah. It's killing me that she doesn't love me back," Jake said. He shocked me with this revelation. He wasn't really the type to open up much, so I knew that this stuff had to be seriously troubling him. I tried to be sensitive about it, but I just couldn't.

"Jake, Ness fell into your lap." I sighed deeply. This was a hard subject for me, but I had to be there for my frined. "You didn't even have to experiment with other relationships to find the right one. You'll never have your heart broken –" Jake interrupted me.

"Don't you see, Leah? She doesn't love me! My heart _is_ breaking!" Jake yelled.

And then, the fucker actually started crying. The mo-fo weeped, deep, heaving sighs. Jake – cried!

First, it was just one tear sliding down his cheek. Then it was two. Then it was a bucket load, and it wasn't showing signs of stopping.

I didn't know what to do, so I just sat quietly next to him for a bit. Quietly, slowly, I moved closer, and gave his arm a little squeeze, then a rub. I put my arm over his shoulders and gave him a hug, and when he didn't flinch out from under my touch, I was _happy_. I felt happy that I could still comfort someone. The last person I had comforted had been mum, when dad passed on. That was years ago.

When Sam imprinted, and left me for, of all people, my cousin, Emily, I thought my heart would never heal. I still felt the hole there. It's a constant reminder of what I went through, but its slowly getting better. Years and years later, it's slowly healing. I knew the imprint bond was one that could never be broken, so I knew that Sam would never come back to me. I could only imagine what Jake was going through, thinking that his imprint would never be his.

I would never imprint, so I would hopefully never feel that pain. But I felt other pain; the pain of loss. The things I would never experience. Some of the Tribal Elders had a theory about imprinting. Some believed that we imprinted on our Soul Mates; that theory, I could handle. Others thought that we imprinted on the ones we were most likely to mate with, who were likely to make stronger wolves. That theory, I couldn't handle. If this theory was correct, it meant that I would never bear children of my own, and I just wasn't sure I was ready to give that up.

I could stop phasing; start ageing, and start ovulating again. But then Jake would lose a member of his pack, and Ness would lose a protector. I wasn't selfish enough to give that up, and at the same time, too selfish to give up the friendship and the feeling of being needed.

When I first phased, as much of a shock that it was to my system, the even bigger shock was when we realised that I was no longer ageing, my body was no longer changing and this meant I couldn't reproduce. That was hard, embarrassing, awkward, uncomfortable, upsetting, heart wrenching, but mostly, devastating, because it was Sam who had to explain all of this to me.

If Jake hadn't been crying, I would have been. He was projecting so much hurt, so much pain, but most of all, so much love for his imprint; for his Ness.

Eventually Jake's tears ran out.

He looked up at me through his red eyes.

"Sorry, Leah. I didn't mean to –"

"Jake, buddy, if you can't cry in front of me, then who can you cry in front of?" I said, lightly.

"Nessie."

"Well, yeah, but she isn't here right now. I am," I said. I was proud of myself for holding it all together.

"So. What do I do, then?" Jake whined. He sounded like a helpless little boy.

"That's obvious, isn't it?" I asked. "Talk to her, dumbass." I corked his shoulder with my knuckle playfully.

I stood up and held my hands out to Jake, pulling him to his feet. We began walking back through the bush. The friendly banter continued, until Jake fell silent again.

"I keep having these dreams about her, Leah," Jake confessed. He said it so quietly that if I didn't have supersonic-wolf-hearing I wouldn't have heard it.

"Oh my God, Jake, I don't want to know about that stuff!" I spluttered.

"Not those kind of dreams, idiot. Just, stuff where she'll tell me she loves me, and that we'll be together forever. Or, we're already married and there's three kids running around, one six, one three, and then Ness has a newborn in her arms. They all have shiny black hair, like me, but they've got Ness's brown eyes and fair skin. And the oldest one has Ness's mind reading abilities, while the second one has her transference powers, and the newborn has wolf genes. Or dreams where we go on a holiday, just the two of us, enjoying the sights, with no threat of danger to Ness. The most recent one was of us, at home in La Push, on the beach. We were home, and it was so nice –" Jacob was rambling, so I had to cut him off.

"Jake, you have no idea how miserable you're making yourself, buddy." _Or me, for that matter_. It was like he had broken in to my head and unlocked the vault where I stashed away all my wants and needs. Only replace him with me, and Ness with my soul mate.

It felt like I was carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders, and I didn't like it. Not one little bit.

We were almost back now. I could smell the scent of the Cullens in the air.

"You're lucky you haven't imprinted, Leah. It's just too painful when your imprint rejects you. I feel like I'm being torn to shreds, like someone has torn my heart out with their bare hands and is holding it in front of me, so I can watch it beating its last beat, while I die." He looked absolutely heartbroken, completely gutted.

Right now though, I could only think about his words, _lucky you haven't imprinted_. I wanted to imprint more than anything in the world. At least then I wouldn't ever be lonely again, and wouldn't have to worry about finding my soul mate; my life partner. It was pretty hard to hold down a relationship with someone when you had to constantly phase into a giant white wolf, and were busy chasing vampires. I didn't hate my job; in fact, it was pretty cool. Ness needed protection, and Seth and I were happy to help Jake and the Cullens provide it. I just hated the loneliness.

"Jake, I gotta phase back, now." I said. We had reached the outskirts of the bush. "Seth's out there on his own, and we need to be vigilant."

"Yeah, cool," Jake replied, giving me a little wave and jogging off in the opposite direction, back towards the house.

I took my dress off when he was out of sight, folded it neatly and put it in the little bag that was attached to my ankle strap. The air around me shimmered as I phased back in to my wolf form.

"Leah?" I heard Jake call. He better not have looked, I swear he's vampire bait if he did.

I turned around and padded back towards him. His back was to me, thankfully.

"Thanks for the chat. I know it's hard for you, but just, thanks."

I nudged his hand gently with my nose, in acceptance of his thanks. He rubbed the top of my head affectionately. I purred.

_No, thank you,_ I thought. I knew he couldn't hear me, but that's ok.

***

**Renesmee's POV**

"I'm a simple girl, Jacob. I don't need big fancy things. But I do need you," I whispered seductively. Jacob took me by the top of my arms and pulled me in to his chest. He was much taller than me, so his chin rested easily on the top of my head. I tilted my head back to look in to his beautiful eyes, and puckered my lips. I pressed myself even closer, tilting my chin up and standing on the tips of my toes to reach Jacobs soft mouth. His lips were parted the tiniest bit, just enough so that I could see his teeth behind them. I placed my hand at the back of his neck and gently pulled him down to me. The vamp in me was only seconds away from throwing him on the bed and tearing his clothes off, when I abruptly woke up.

I almost sobbed out loud when I realised that was the last time I would see that perfect scene, until I dreamed it again.

A thin sheen of sweat caked my body, so I decided that a cold shower was in order. After that, I needed a girlie chat. I couldn't talk to Aunt Alice about anything other than clothes, and Aunt Rose definitely wouldn't understand. I wasn't comfortable talking to mom about this particular topic either, so I'll go find Leah. She'll know what to do about my situation.

***

"Leah, I need to talk to you!" I called as I ran swiftly through the trees. "Where are you?"

_Hey Ness, I'm over by the river. Near the big eucalypt._

I ran to the location I saw in her mind, and a large white wolf emerged in front of me. She nuzzled my hand affectionately, her tongue lolling to the side of her mouth in a wolfish grin.

"Leah, can I talk to you? Have you got time?" I asked, hesitantly. She always seemed so busy at the moment, and I didn't want to bother her. She nodded her furry head, once.

_Do you want me to phase? _I heard her mental voice loud and clear.

"Is anyone else phased? I mean, will anyone else hear this conversation?" I asked. I knew that what I was really asking was 'is Jacob phased' but I didn't want to spell it out for her.

Leah made a weird kind of noise that sounded almost like a sigh.

_Ness, you know how the pack mind works. Jake is running, somewhere, so yeah, he's phased. Seth is in the house with Esme, stuffing his face as usual. _Leah sighed. I wondered about what was bothering her.

_Hi Nessie, sweetheart, _I heard Jacob say in the pack mind.

"Oh, um - yeah, you better phase then," I said a little too abruptly. I didn't want Jacob to think anything was wrong, if he had heard that. I felt my cheeks blaze red, and turned my head away before Leah could see.

_I'll be right back._

Leah turned and walked away from me to the shelter of three big eucalyptus trees that were growing dangerously close to each other. When she emerged she was wearing a lime green sundress with wide straps and a cute little v-neckline. It had a little tie that tied behind her back. The dress suited her. She should wear it more often.

Aunt Alice kept Leah's wardrobe stocked almost as well as she kept mine stocked. The only difference was that Leah requested that if Alice insisted on buying her clothes, she had the right to leave them hanging in the fresh air for 2 days after Alice touched them, and then I was the only one allowed to put them away. She still hated the vampire smell, but could tolerate the smell of a hybrid apparently. Leah had come a long way in the last couple of years, however there were still some things that she wouldn't budge on. That was okay though – baby steps.

"So, Ness. What's shakin'?" Leah laughed. She gave me a quick hug and we walked together to our favourite log. It was a long tree that had fallen across the river some time ago. We walked out on the trunk about five metres and sat down above the water. I hung my legs in front of me, while Leah sat with her legs on either side of the log.

"It's Jacob." I started, and Leah groaned.

"What?" I asked.

"No, don't worry about it. It's nothing," Leah said. She nodded her head vigorously. "Go on."

"Oh, um, I don't really know where to start," I said.

"The beginning would be good."

"Okay," I began.

" Well – I keep having these weird dreams about him. They aren't weird exactly, just not like the type of dreams I should be having about him. In the dreams, I'm saying all these things to him, and I know in real life, if I said them to him he would hate me and probably move back to La Push because he would never want to see me again. And he's my best friend, I don't-want-to-lose-him. He-means-too-much-to-me-and -" Leah interrupted me when my words all started to flow into one another, putting a hand up in the air to hush me. She had listened patiently to my babbling, and I could see that it was hard for her.

"Nessie, I don't want to know all the gory details, but what kind of things are you saying to Jake in these dreams?" She asked.

A single traitor-tear slid down my cheek.

"That I love him," I said simply.

" That – that, I'm _in_ love with him," I said, slowly forcing the words out of my mouth.

"And _do_ you love him? Or is that just the dreams talking?" Leah asked.

"Oh, Leah!" I cried, my hands fluttering feebly in the air. I knew I wouldn't be able to stop it now. "I love him more than anything, like my locket says – more than my own life! I want Jacob to be mine, all mine, and not belong to anybody else, ever again! I don't want to share him, I want to be selfish. I LOVE JACOB BLACK, AND I WANT TO TELL THE WHOLE WORLD!" I shouted.

The look on Leah's face was priceless, but the look on Jacob's face was even more so as he slowly emerged from the trees beside us, tugging his hair in his fist. He looked shocked; like he had seen a ghost.

_Oh my - oh my God! She - she WHAT?_ I heard Jacobs inner voice stuttering uncontrollably, and those words did not sound like the words of someone who was happy about what he had just heard.

My head snapped up when I saw him. I jumped to my feet and I ran. I couldn't believe this was happening. I was about to lose everything, because of one moment of recklessness.

"Nessie, wait!" Jacob yelled, as I burst in to tears.

I was faster than the wolves - they would never catch me.

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**Review please!!**


	5. Ness loves Jake

_**A/N: I am not Steph, no matter how cool that would be, and so far I own nothing but the title, and maybe this particular storyline. But that's all, I swear. **_

_**I don't even own the idea of Aboriginal Vampires, which belongs to Carls5681.**_

_**..and I know you've all read this a million times in other stories, but we writers really do like reviews, and the more reviews I get, the more I write.. it spurs me on!**_

_**And on another note – i've had 183 hits/83 visitors to my story, which is GREAT, but why have I only got 7 reviews??**_

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Lonely is the night when I'm not with you  
Lonely is the night aint no light shining through  
Till you're in my arms till you're here by my side  
Lonely am I.

-- Lonely is the night, by Air Supply.

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**Jacobs POV**

_She loves me?_

"She loves me." I said out loud, to myself. It was a statement, not a question. My voice was so soft, that I was surprised Leah had even heard me. I barely registered some movement to my left, where Leah had raced to hold me back.

When I finally realised it, it was like coming up for air, from the deepest part of the ocean. I had been struggling for air; struggling to survive. Now though, I could see the light up the top, and I knew where to go. I knew that at the top, would be my air; those amazing, brown eyes, and full red lips. The long bronze tangles, and those tiny arms, that, even though they were so small, could still envelope me with so much love. My Ness was at the top of all that water, and I would go to her.

I shut my eyes, and I saw Ness's shocked face screw up as she leapt gracefully to her feet and took off into the bush. Her face looked all wrong. My Ness should not ever be hurt in such a way that she felt the need to screw her face up like that. Then I saw it all over again. The scene replayed itself, over and over again, until I re-opened my eyes. But in front of me was the wrong face. It was Leah's dark, native American skin, a stark contrast to Ness's pale, creamy skin.

The look of shock on my face must have mirrored the look on Ness's, as my head shot around to find Leah. I spun a full 360 degrees trying to see where My Ness had vanished.

Leah gently grasped my elbow. "Leave her be, Jake."

I rocked back on my heels, giddy with emotion. My Ness had just professed her love for me, and said that she wanted to tell the whole world. My Ness actually said that! I was sure that I was dreaming again. I had to be, because this was definitely too good to be true.

Except for the part where she ran away. Crying. My Ness should never feel like she needs to cry.

"I have to check that she's okay," I panted, as I sprinted into the bush.

"No, Jake! She needs time. I know how you feel about her Jake, but she doesn't. Jake, stop!" Leah yelled in an effort to get me to listen. I paused abruptly and turned to face her.

"Right now, she thinks you're about to reject her. Give her time to calm down, so she can be rational about this, okay?" She had a point, as much as I hated to admit it, but there were bad things out here. Bad things, that wanted Ness almost as much as I did, but for all the wrong reasons. And I wanted to have more than a lifetime to show Ness how much I loved her, so I had to get to her before the other _things_ did.

Leah could see my struggle. "I'll go after her, you find Seth and get him patrolling," Leah ordered. I was beginning to wonder who the alpha was.

So I did what I was told. I went home, and found Seth.

***

Several hours later, there was still no sign of Ness. Emmett, Rosalie and Edward had gone out searching for her, along with Leah and Seth. I stayed behind with Bella, Alice and Jasper in case she came home, mostly because I just thought she would. I had been pacing the living room, wearing a track in the hard wood floor, since I sent Seth to Leah. Bella hadn't moved a fraction of an inch and still stood at the door, with her head cocked, listening for any noise that could have been her daughter.

The first noise we heard, I almost didn't hear. It was Rosalie, on her own, dragging her feet. That was completely unlike the prim and proper blonde model-wannabe. Normally, in any situation, she held her chin high and her back straight. So I knew that something was wrong.

"Where are the others? Where's Ness?" I quickly asked. She hissed at me then turned to Bella.

"We tracked her as far as the river, but her scent stops there. We think she's followed the river downstream. We split up and I followed the river as far as I could, and came back here, hoping the boys would be back with her, but I can't find her Bella! I'm so sorry –" Blondie stumbled over her words. "The - the boys - they were going to keep looking further - in to the bush to see if they could find her."

Bella sighed and looked at me.

"Jake, what happened out there? What did you say to her?" Bella asked. Her breath hitched; if she could cry, she would have been.

"Bells, I didn't even get a chance to say anything to her. She said something that I don't think she was ready for me to hear, and I heard it. She ran before I could tell her that it's okay, and it's allowed."

"That _what's _allowed, Jacob?" She all but hissed.

"That she's allowed to love me." My voice was so hollow and so quiet that even the vamps had a hard time hearing me.

Blondie hissed. Bella gasped. I choked. Jasper calmed, and Alice – she disappeared.

The vamps slowly dissipated from the room, leaving me to my vices, and my thoughts. So, for the first time in about ten years, I did something incredibly stupid.

I drank. I drank myself in to oblivion.

My Ness was missing and it was all my fault. I soon realised that being a werewolf-slash-shapeshifter has its disadvantages. It took me a slab and a half of VB Beer, and 2 bottles of straight tequila before the lines in the floor even began to blur. Another bottle and a half and I was numb. The rest of the last bottle, and I think I could have passed out if I wanted to.

It didn't make me feel any better though.

I'm not sure how long I had been sitting on the couch for before I felt the cushion beside me shift, as though someone was sitting down. Minutes, hours, days, weeks? No idea.

When I looked, I knew I must have been completely smashed; totally flummoxed, because beside me, was Blondie... or at least, it looked like Blondie. Her edges were a little blurred, like they did when she ran real fast, her hair was wild and dishevelled, and she kind of looked like she had fangs and – _devil horns?_ But it was definitely her.

"Ey, whaddya doin' Blonnn-die?" No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't hold my head up straight, or stop the wobbles. I looked like one of those boonie dolls that come in the slabs of VB; the bobble-head thing-a-mi-jigs.

"Jacob." She said, tilting her head slightly in my direction.

"Where'sh every one elshh?"

"Looking for Ness."

"Oh," then the tears started. Shit. "Shit." I can't cry in front of Blondie, but then, I knew all the things I wanted to do right now were near impossible.

"Jacob," she started again.

"Roshalie."

"Do you think perhaps you should go easy on the drink?" she said, eyeing the empty bottles by my feet. She leaned closer to me, and tried not to screw her nose up when she touched me. I was touched. Blondie was making an effort for me!

"But My Nesshie is gonnnnnne!" I wailed. I'm sure that tomorrow I would be disgusted with myself. "I'sss all my fault!"

"Jake, I thought protecting Ness was your number one priority," Blondie scolded. "What if she needs you? She does need you, she always needs you, but how can you help her in this condition?" Uh uh, she did not just wag her bony little finger at me! "What if she's in real trouble, and you can't go to her?"

She had a point, really.

"She has her family." I said, feeling rather sorry for myself.

"You're her family too, Jake. Think about that," she said, patting my knee twice gently, then standing up.

"Jacob?" Rosalie hesitated.

"Yep?" I made a little popping noise on the 'p'.

"Nothing – it's nothing." I could see her hesitating, like she still needed to say something.

"Spit it out, Rose," I snarled. I was sure I wouldn't like whatever it was she had to say. She hesitated a moment longer, before whispering under her breath.

"You need to snap out of this depression, Jake. I don't like it. Ness isn't the only one who would be devastated if something happened to you, you know." She turned slowly to meet my eye, and for a fraction of a second, I didn't see Rosalie the dumb blonde, who cared about nobody but herself. I saw Rosalie, the smart, attractive person, who lost so much as a human, and had a heart of gold. Maybe she wasn't as bad as I had convinced myself.

Maybe it was just the drink talking.

***

I waited by the door for two whole days, and there was still no sign of My Ness. It seemed like a lifetime ago when I accidentally eavesdropped on Nessie and Leah's conversation. How could she have read my expression so wrongly that it lead to her thinking she had to run away for this long? All I knew was that I couldn't, I wouldn't, sit here waiting for her anymore. I paced my last lap of the lounge, and marched out the door. I vaguely heard someone in the distance query 'hey, where's Jake going?' and I yelled back 'to find Ness,' as I picked up my pace and flew into the bush.

I distinctly heard footsteps behind me, but when I turned to see who was there, there was nothing. I realised that I should have stopped running before I turned around to look behind me, when I ran into the brick wall. I fell flat on my ass, and shook the stars away from my vision. I looked to see what it was that I had just hit, and saw Emmett standing there with his hands on his hips, loud booming laughs rolling off him in waves.

"Uh uh wolf boy. Don't even think about it," Emmett said, still chuckling to himself.

"Too late," I replied, shoving him roughly out of the way; not easy when you're shoving a vampire.

"Well, if you're going, then I am too," Emmett said, only losing his balance for a second. "Rose!" he said in the general direction of the house. "I'm going with Jake!"

We ran in silence for a while, but then I caught her fading scent. Emmett must have too, because he glanced up at me, startled, and we both altered our course to accommodate the trail we sniffed out.

We hit the river where Ness's scent stopped.

"Can you smell her, Em?" I asked.

"Nah, man, I can't." Emmett ran his marble fingers through his hair roughly, tugging at a fist full absently.

"I have a _really_ strong feeling that we need to go this way," I said, pointing a little way down the river.

Emmett shrugged. "Imprint thing?"

"Yeah, I think so."

We continued on down the river a little, and I got the oddest sensation. I heard Nessie's voice in my head. She was telling me that I needed to get out of the water before I caught my death. _A little odd_, I thought, since I don't get sick, but who was I to question My Nessie? I did as I was told, and the second I did, her scent washed over me and hit me almost as hard as I had hit Emmett when we left the house.

"This way," I said to Emmett, excited that we were getting somewhere finally.

As we got further into the bush, I noticed a trail of destruction, distinctly unhuman. There was a young spruce, roots and all, thrown fiercely against a cliff face looming above us. We passed a fissure in the cliff face also, and Emmett pointed to the crumbled boulder below it. It had finger marks on the side of it that would not normally have been visible to human eyes. It appeared to have been thrown at the cliff face in the same manner as the young spruce. About ten kilometres further in, we stopped abruptly at the sight of a drained dingo. Nessie's scent rolled off it in waves. I shuddered at the sight. Emmett and I quickly stepped over the drained carcus and continued to follow Nessie's trail.

It was only another five minutes before Emmett stopped so quickly that I almost tripped over him.

"Do you smell it?" He asked.

I sniffed the air. "What the hell is that?" I asked.

"Vampire," he said bluntly.

"No shit, Sherlock!" I had worked that much out for myself, but it had a funny stench about it, like it wasn't the same kind of bloodsucker as the ones I had come across in my travels.

"I'm pretty sure it's Vampire, but it doesn't smell right. I can still smell Ness, but her scent is less dominant," he clarified.

The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and I felt goose bumps spread all the way down my arms as I shuddered at the mental image that put in my head. My poor baby, crossing paths with a bloodsucker – a leech.

The scent suddenly got stronger, and I phased immediately. I felt my body shudder of its own accord, and I exploded out of my skin. It was immediately after that, when I saw the leaves in front of us parting, that I realised we were being watched.

Emmett put one foot back, and crouched into his usual hunting stance beside me. He ran his fingers through the hair on my back and gave me an almost unnoticeable push to indicate that he wanted me to circle to his left. He rounded our friend up on the right.

As we began to move, the figure stepped out of the bushes, his hands stretched out in front in a gesture which clearly said 'don't hurt me, i'm not a threat'.

"G'day fellas," he drawled. "I won't hurt you, if you don't hurt me."

Emmett glanced at me, puzzled. I growled. I wasn't ready to trust him just yet.

"Of course, we welcome you," he began, "and I note from your eyes that you do not drink human blood, but what of your friend here?" the stranger asked, indicating me with a flick of his wrist. "Does he drink human blood?"

Don't be gross!

"Ahem!" Emmett cleared his throat, stifling back a chuckle. "Jacob here is a werewolf. He is loyal to my family and I. He does not feed from humans."

"Fabulous, mate. However, this is my hunting ground. My tribe has tried very hard for many hundreds of years to stay inconspicuous. You may hunt anywhere outside of Western Australia, however here is off limits without prior permission." The man had been taking small steps to make up some of the ground between us, while he was talking. He had a thick Australian accent, although his skin was very dark. He was not pale like the other bloodsuckers I knew. He had short thick curly black hair, and strange markings painted on his skin in what appeared to be white paint. And gold eyes. He also did not feed on humans.

Emmett stared at the strange man for several seconds longer, an eternity, almost, in vampire time, then stood straight, offering his hand to the man.

"I'm Emmett, this is Jacob. You'll have to excuse him, he just exploded out of his clothes and probably feels a little self conscious to phase back to human with no clothes to wear," Emmett chuckled.

I hit Emmett hard with my tail. Smart ass.

"I'm sure I can help, if you would like to come back to my camp," the strange man offered. "My name is Jarrah, and I am from the Yorta Yorta tribe. We move around Australia a little to stay inconspicuous, although we have managed to stay here a little longer than we could have hoped for."

Emmett and Jarrah shared some friendly banter and stories of their biggest catches while we walked. I waited forever for them to finally get to the matter at hand; the reason we were out this way.

As we neared his camp, Jarrah stopped and turned to face us. "What are you two doing out this way, anyway mate?" he asked Emmett.

"Actually, I was hoping you could help us with this," Emmett said. "We're looking for my niece. She went missing a couple of days ago after taking a run, and we followed her scent out here."

Jarrah looked puzzled, so Emmett continued.

"She has long bronze curls, brown eyes, and a heartbeat. She's half-human."

"Ah, that explains it then," Jarrah said, as he parted the leaves in front of us, and a woman stepped out, cradling _My_ Ness in _her_ arms.

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**Ahem!**

***cough*review*cough*  
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	6. And so the Princess sleeps

_**A/N: I am not Steph, no matter how cool that would be, and so far I own nothing but the title, and maybe this particular storyline. But that's all, I swear.**_

_**..and I know you've all read this a million times in other stories, but we writers really do like reviews, and the more reviews I get, the more I write.. it spurs me on!**_

_**And I have to apologise. I know this chapter is a little short, however I had my first exam today, and I think I passed, so to celebrate I thought I would upload this chapter!  
I hope it is up to everyone's standard, and that you all like it :)  
**_

_**

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**_I feel a change,  
back to a better day, shape shift,  
hair stands on the back of my neck, shape shift,  
wildness is the preservation of the world,  
so seek the wolf in thyself.

-- Of Wolf and Man, Metallica.

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I have never growled so long, so low, so loud, ever in my life. Emmett almost had to restrain me. As it was, he already held a fistful of the fur from the scruff of my neck tightly is his closed fist, and moved his body in such a way that it was angled between the bloodsuckers and I. I stood, on all fours, only a fraction below his shoulder, so he was able to shoot his arm straight out and reach my neck easily.

Ness's head rolled back, and I could see her pulse beating in her neck. It was slower than it normally was. Emmett's fury mimicked mine.

Up until now, I was able to see the beautiful green, brown and orange tones in the different leaves, and appreciate the woodsy scent surrounding us. Now though, I could see nothing but Nessie. Everything else was a blur of grey hues. The only thing still in living color was Ness. I felt like I was in the middle of a really bad horror movie.

I wondered exactly how long my tether was, because I was sure that I was well and truly at the end of it. I phased back immediately, and snatched Ness from the strange woman's arms.

She had a _cut_ on her forehead! My Ness had hybrid skin! She doesn't cut!

I collapsed to my knees, sobbing, with Ness still in my arms. It wasn't her weight that forced me to the ground, it was the pure grief I felt at seeing My Ness, hurt and unconscious. It was the pure relief I felt at seeing her again, after thinking I might never see her again. It was the pure heartache of not knowing whether I would get to explain myself to her.

"What did you do to her?" I roared, looking into the monsters eyes. Once upon a time, those eyes might have scared the crap out of me. Not anymore.

The strange woman left and reappeared with some clothes.

"Put these on, Jacob," Jarrah instructed. The strange woman averted her eyes from my naked form. I looked at the clothes quickly, and noted the black, red and yellow image of an Aboriginal Flag on the back of the t-shirt. There was also a pair of blue jeans, quite obviously too small for me, so I ripped the legs off just above the knees, and tore two long tears in the seams to split them open enough to fit over my thighs. I put them on, ignoring the bloodsucker stench that I had become accustomed to over the years.

Jarrah spoke. "This precious beauty is part human, obviously. She has a heartbeat, she bleeds, although she is almost as strong and almost as fast as us. She ran very fast into the branch of a tree nearby to here, and knocked herself out. She did a really great job of obliterating the branch though!" Jarrah joked.

"You are very lucky that we found her, and she didn't end up with something more dangerous chasing her tail," he added, gravely. "We have not had very nice creatures roaming these lands recently."

"Alkina has placed her into an induced coma until her head injury is healed. She heals at a rapid pace, we noticed, so we hoped that it wouldn't take more than a week. After that, we intended to ask her where she came from," he said, indicating the woman holding Ness.

"We intended to bring her back to you, Jacob. You are very obviously her – her mate?" Alkina spoke for the first time. Her voice was soft and tinkling, like the familiar chimes that I had grown used to, however it also had a rough quality to it; earthy undertones.

"No," I croaked, kicking at the dirt.

"Oh." The unspoken 'why not?' hung in the air.

"Her head injury should have healed by now, in any case. There is only so much we can do for her, you know? We don't know a lot about hybrids," Alkina stated, Jarrah nodding quietly next to her.

A low rumble echoed off Emmett's chest as he looked from me, to Ness and back to me again, horrified. "We have to get her to Carlisle, _now_," he growled.

Jarrah started to step towards Ness, with his hand out, as if to touch her, and a feral snarl ripped from my throat. He retracted his hand, and took a step back.

"I only meant to bless her, as we have done for many centuries, mate. I didn't mean to offend," he said apologetically.

"Jarrah, we appreciate what you have done for her, however we need to get her back to our house. We are much better equipped to deal with this at the house. There is a doctor there who is experienced with her, and knows what to look for. I don't mean to be rude, but we kinda gotta go," Emmett said hurriedly.

"Nah, not a problem," Jarrah said. "However, I insist, Alkina and I will come with you. We are more aware of what happened to her than you are. We will explain it to your doctor friend."

Emmett looked at me.

"Fine," I growled. "But touch her, and you're werewolf breakfast. There are more hungry wolves at home to feed, and I'm sure Emmett here will be happy to hold you down for us - not that we couldn't handle you on our own. " I was never one to admit when we needed the vamps help. Why start now? I was careful not to admit to our new 'friends' how many wolves we had in our pack. I still wasn't sure that they were trustworthy.

I kissed Ness on her forehead, just above the cut, and stepped lightly away from the clearing, cradling her gently.

"It's ok sweetheart, we'll get you home where you belong," I whispered quietly in her ear. I hated to see her like this. I was just so glad, and so relieved that we had found her, and that for the most part, she was okay and in one piece.

It felt kind of surreal running through the forest with an unconscious Nessie in my arms, Emmett by my side, clearing the way, and the other two bloodsuckers running behind me. But we were going home, and that was where My Nessie belonged.

***

"I've got an idea!" Emmett bellowed as we neared the house. Our respective moods had lightened somewhat as we got closer to home, and the prospect of getting Nessie to Carlisle.

"Pfft, yeah, right. What's that, Em?" I chuckled lightly, trying real hard not to jostle My Ness.

"Yeah," he said. He fetched the baseball and his bat that he stashed near Edward and Bella's cottage. He tossed the ball in the air, once, twice, then smashed it in the direction of the house. "Edward won't know what hit him!"

"Great," I said. "Don't you think Nessie's situation is a little more dire than that?"

"Yes, Jacob. I agree with you. Don't you think the life of your niece is important enough, Emmett?" Edwards serious voice appeared suddenly in front of us, ball in hand. He tossed the ball back to Emmett and glanced briefly from Emmett, to myself, then to our two friends behind us.

"I am aware of the situation," Edward started. "It is all these two have been thinking about for the last few miles."

_Oh? _ _Did they reveal anything new? _I thought in Edwards direction. I looked at Edward, then at Jarrah and Alkina and had to stifle a laugh at the shocked expressions on their faces.

"No, Jacob." Edward answered. "Everything they know, they have told you already. They are actually hoping to find out more about us, by accompanying Emmett and yourself back to the house."

Emmett nodded to himself while we continued moving back to the house.

"Leah has been patrolling since you left, Jacob, so I was out here helping her, when I heard you all coming. Bella is waiting at the house for your arrival, and Carlisle is preparing his office for Renesmee," Edward added. "The others are all anxious to see Renesmee again, also."

"Let's take her home then," I agreed.

"Ahem," Jarrah cleared his throat.

"My apologies, Jarrah, Alkina," Edward said, picking their names out of their heads. "My name is Edward. I am Renesmee's father. Not her maker. Her _father_," said Edward, placing emphasis on the last word. "Thank you so very much for helping my daughter."

We rounded the final corner back to the house, and there was still no sign of movement from Nessie. We emerged from the bush with me in front with Nessie in my arms, Emmett slightly behind on my left, and Edward on my right, Jarrah and Alkina behind them. All we needed to do was put the scene in slow motion, cue the smoke machine, and it would look just like a movie.

Except for the diamond sparkles bouncing the skin of all but myself and Nessie.

Bella was the first out of the house. She raced to my side and took Nessie's emotionless face in her hands, placing a quick kiss on her forehead. Edward pulled her into a hard embrace that looked like it would have killed anything other than a vampire. They both looked so pained, and I honestly felt sorry for them. She was their daughter, afterall.

I continued up the porch steps and into the house, where Blondie, Alice, Jasper and Esme stood, waiting for us. Alice kissed Nessie on the forehead, in the same place that Bella had, then immediately took up her usual position in the corner, as far away from us as possible, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Jacob, take Nessie upstairs. Carlisle is waiting for her up there. Maybe then I might be able to see what's going to happen, but right now, with both of you down here, I can't see a damn thing," Alice mumbled.

I didn't need to be told twice. I flew up the stairs, My Ness cradled gently in the crook of my arms. Blondie followed me, but kept her distance. She hadn't said a word since I brought Nessie home, but the strangled look on her face told me everything I needed to know.

"Come in Jacob!" Carlisles voice echoed in the eerie stillness of the corridor, as I approached his office. "Put her here, please." He indicated the long metal bench, which he had set up with a hospital sheet. There were monitors by the side of the bed, if you could call it a bed, along with the special tools and needles that Carlisle used for Nessie, due to her extra thick hybrid skin.

I set her down without saying a word. My poor Ness looked so helpless with that huge gash across her forehead, right above her eye. It would almost certainly scar.

"Thank you Jacob. For everything." Carlisle gave me a deep look that told me everything would be okay. I trusted him with My Ness. "You may go now."

Not on your life, Doc. No. Uh uh.

"I – I can't leave her, Doc." My voice broke. "Will she be okay?" I asked.

"Renesmee is a fighter, Jacob. You know that." He didn't say yes, but that was close enough for me.

"You may sit over there, Jacob." Carlisle indicated a sturdy looking chair in the corner. I looked at him questioningly.

"Alice anticipated that you would not leave when she saw my immediate future disappear off her radar, for the period of time that I was treating Renesmee," he said, in answer to my look.

"Thank you," I said.

I'm not sure how long I sat in that corner for, watching Carlisle inject Nessie with different solutions, and adding and removing needles from her precious skin. Edward and Bella joined me at one stage, and every now and then I would glance briefly to the side and notice that one or both had disappeared, only to reappear the next time I looked. I never noticed when they came or went; I only noticed Nessie. Always, Nessie.

Esme brought me food to eat, but it usually went stale. I wasn't hungry. I couldn't eat.

The monitor beside Nessie's bed beeped steadily, and every so often the beeps would increase and Carlisle would rush to her side, but they always calmed down again.

It was very early one morning, when Edward suddenly appeared next to Nessie's side, and looked towards me.

"She's waking up," Edward whispered. "She is running through everything that happened, everything that she remembers before she hit the tree."

It was times like this that his mind reading trick came in _really_ handy.

"Carlisle!" I called.

"Jacob! Please! He can hear you!" Edward said in a loud whisper.

_Oh. Right. _"Shit, sorry Edward," I said, suddenly aware of the atmosphere in the room, entirely for Nessie's sake.

_Oh, Nessie baby, please wake up. I need to see your beautiful eyes. Her eyes – they're so beautiful and warm – I need to see her – I need to know she's okay – how could she run from me like that, I didn't even get to ask her if she meant it – It's all my fault, _I thought.

I really, _really, _needed Nessie. I needed to hold her, and comfort her, and tell her that everything is okay, and that I am not upset with her, and that I want to take care of her for the rest of her life.

Edward growled. "All in good time, Jacob."

Carlisle slipped silently in to the room, and moved to stand beside Ness. Bella came with him and moved to the other side of her bed, not quite pushing me out of the way, but still squeezing between me and the bed.

"Renesmee, baby, if you can hear me, squeeze my hand," she said. I watched Nessie's hand in Bella's, praying that I would see it move. I would give my own life just to know that Nessie would be okay.

It seemed like an eternity later, when my prayers were answered and my entire world stopped. Her tiny hand moved, just one tiny, little, gentle squeeze.

Oh my Holy God. My life was complete. It was complete to this stage of my life. My Ness was going to be okay. And I would make sure that she always had everything she would ever want, for the rest of her life. She would never be without, ever again.

My Ness. My girl. If she would have me.

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**And as usual, review please!**


	7. Nessie doesn't get it

**A/N – **for those who are unsure – the 'words' when Ness is found are not being spoken.. they are being transported telepathically into her brain, however she can't hear them completely. It's kind of like a subconscious thing, so she doesn't realise they're being spoken to her.

Also, I apologise for taking a little longer to get this chapter out. I wanted to give you a longer chapter, so I spent more time writing it.

Plus, I got a little too stuck in to True Blood.

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The following poem is by an unknown author. Its called Apache Song. It's one of my all-time favourites, and right now I think it applies to this chapter.

_Now you will feel no rain,  
for each of you will be a shelter to the other._

_Now you will feel no cold,  
for each of you will be warmth to the other._

_Now there is no loneliness for you,  
now there is no more loneliness._

_Now you are two bodies,  
but there is only one life before you._

_Go now to your dwelling place,  
to enter into your days together._

_And may your days be good  
and long upon this earth._

**

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**

**Renesmee's POV**

_Ow!_ My head hurt so bad. The last thing I remembered was taking off into the bush after Jake heard me confessing that I loved him, to Leah.

_Oh shit. _Jake heard that. I groaned internally.

Then I remembered all that emotion I had felt; all the anger, the hurt, the pain, the love, and the hate, all together, all at once. One big pool of hurt.

How did I get here? I saw Jake. He bloody eavesdropped on my conversation with Lee. He heard what I said. I know that I didn't really say it quietly, in fact, I shouted it. But still, he knew I had to talk to Leah, and I _assumed_, obviously wrongly, that he would stay away, since he had supersonic-pointy-ass-wolf-ears and all.

I don't really blame him for all of this though. Nobody wants to hear that their best friend is in love with them, especially when you can't return her feelings. Things would never be the same between Jacob and I now. I will never forget the look of shock on his face. I didn't want to know all of the horrible things that he must have been thinking about, so I closed my mind off as I ran away. I remember jumping to my feet and racing across the log to the other side of the river, the blur of green and brown racing past me. I'm not as quick as the wolves or my family but I'm still quicker than a freight train at its fastest speed.

I ran through the river for what felt like miles, and although the water was cool and refreshing, I still couldn't shake the feelings of hurt and anger. I could feel the blood pulsing hard through my veins, and the rhythmic thumping through the soles of my feet, the tips of my fingers and all the way up to the top of my head. I felt like I just needed to vent and take my frustrations out on something, but that wasn't the way that my family had raised me. So I just kept running.

After I left the calmness of the cool water, I grabbed the nearest thing I could find and pulled hard. It was a small spruce. I tore it from the ground roots and all, throwing it at the cliff face. Feelings of frustration seemed to pulse through my arm, and burst out of my fingers along with the spruce.

So I grabbed a rock. It was a good size, only about 32 inches across and at least half of that in height. I grabbed it a little too hard though and small slivers of rock and gravel sifted through my fingers. I forced all of the angry feelings out and into the rock, and the next thing I knew the rock was hurtling at the cliff face. The collision caused the rock to shatter into a couple of smaller pieces, and a large crack appeared in the cliff face where they had connected with a thunderous noise.

Slowly, I was feeling satisfied. Bad, because this wasn't how I should be taking out my anger, but better. I was still hurting though, deep inside. I slowed my running pace down as I continued further in land.

It was at that point that I remember a dingo making the very un-smart decision to cross my path. I grabbed it by the scruff of its neck, pulled it in to my chest, and despite its howls and cries of protest, I channelled all of the hurt I was feeling and pushed it out through my fingers and quickly, but efficiently, snapped the dingo's neck. It all happened within approximately half a second – there was no thought process involved at all. I just did it.

I cried. I screamed. I shrieked. I bawled. I whimpered. I moaned and collapsed to my knees. I released all of my hurt as the memory of the last hour washed over me. I was, by now, fully aware that the dingo was very much like Jacob, just a tenth of his size, and what I had just done made me feel so much worse.

I lowered my teeth to its warm throat, and bit through the soft flesh and into the artery. I sobbed as the warm blood flowed down my throat, and I remembered how it had felt when I drank Jacob's blood that one time when I was little. Such an intimate thing to do, but between two people who were only friends, one who was only two years old, it really didn't mean anything. He had his hand over my mouth to stop me laughing because he was tickling me, and I bit him to make him move his hand. It was only a little bite but it released blood, and I could still remember the feeling very _very _clearly. I had tried to bite him, just once more, in the crook of his neck when I was cuddling up to him. He caught me just before I did, tilting my chin up before my teeth could sink in. I laughed so hard that we ended up rolling around on the floor together. Daddy had banned me from biting Jacob after that. The memory just made me cry even more.

My heart ached for what I had already lost today, by saying such a careless thing.

I love Jacob Black, but clearly he doesn't love me back. And that's what hurt the most.

I was almost done draining the dingo when I heard it. A rustling of leaves, and distinctly human footsteps. Or at least, not wolf. I sniffed at the air, but first the only thing I could smell was the dingo that still lay across my lap. I heard the footsteps pause, and a gust of wind blew an unfamiliar scent in my direction. It smelt like vampire, but with other scents mixed in. It wasn't right. But whatever it was, I shouldn't be here on my own, and I was in danger.

I stood up so quickly when I heard the footsteps moving in my direction, attempting to grab the branch above my head and swiftly swing myself up and out of harms way. Despite daddy and Jacob (I mentally winced) keeping secrets from me, I was still fully aware that I had made a bad choice to run off on my own today. I knew there were horrible things out here, and if the boys were keeping secrets from me, then that probably meant that those horrible things were coming for me.

I put my hands up to grab the branch that I knew was above me, but as I did, the entire world around me froze, including me. I was bloody well suspended in mid air. This couldn't be good.

I listened to see if I could pick up on anything and I heard a definite hum coming from not too far away. It kind of sounded like '_humunah humunah humunah'_ then there was nothing. A static, but that was all. Then I heard it again, louder.

_Humunah humunah humunaaaah, hum hum humunah humunaaaah._

I was screaming out for help but no sound was coming out of my mouth. In fact, my mouth wasn't moving at all. I could feel the muscles clenching inside my jaw, inside my body, but on the outside there wasn't a single movement.

_Nochildnochildwewillnotharmyouchild._

I could hear myself screaming, could feel myself trying to break free from whatever ties held me so still, but nothing was happening.

_Donotstrugglechildwewillnotharmyouchild._

How odd! I could feel myself becoming calmer, and my muscles were relaxing. I struggled less. I could hear a low humming in the back of my head, but nothing certain that I could make out.

Then I saw two people step out from the bushes, and walk straight towards me. Well, not people exactly. Vampires. And I was petrified. Were these the dangerous things that were coming for me? The ones that daddy and Jacob were keeping from me?

There were two of them; a man and a woman. She was casually dressed in a sun dress that was brown and red with some strange kind of pattern all over it. It reminded me of the dirt and the river. Dusty looking, with straight and wavy lines running every which way. She wore no shoes on her feet. The man wore a pair of black shorts which were almost the same color as his skin. _Unusual_ I thought, since all the other vampires I had ever seen were pale, with the exception of a couple, but they were still nowhere near as dark as these two. He had strange lines and dots painted on his skin in some kind of white substance. And gold eyes.

My attention was diverted when the man casually picked the dingo up that still lay below me at my feet, and tossed it to the side.

I still couldn't move, but for reasons beyond me, I was no longer afraid of the two vampires that stood in front of me.

The man touched my elbow and I immediately unfroze, along with everything else around me. The down side to this was that when I was frozen, assumably by these two strange creatures, I was in mid-jump. So when he un-froze me, I finished the jump.

The next thing I remember is a searing pain, stars, and blackness behind my eyes.

****

"She's waking up," I heard someone whispering. It sounded like my dad. Whoever it was, they were close, in the same room as me, so this wasn't something that I was remembering in my head.

"She is running through everything that happened, everything that she remembers before she hit the tree." Yep, definitely my dad. But _what tree?_

I heard Jake talking to my dad. In fact, I heard him shouting. I honestly thought he would have done the bolt by now.

I tried to listen to what he was thinking, but I heard nothing but static. In fact, when I tried to listen to the rest of my family, I got nothing but empty space.

I felt a cold hand gently clasp mine, and a soft tinkling voice say "Renesmee, baby, if you can hear me, squeeze my hand."

Momma. _What's on her mind?_ Nope, nothing.

I didn't really want to wake up yet, but I knew that if I didn't do it, they would all be concerned for me, and the less attention I got, the better.

I squeezed momma's hand once, lightly.

"Carlisle!" she said excitedly. "She's waking!"

"I need everybody out now, please, except Jacob, Bella and Edward," Carlisle said, with only a hint of authority in his voice, although no one would dare question him.

Carlisle. Pa. _Surely, I should be getting something from him._ Nope, nadda.

I heard the quick shuffle of feet, and smelled several familiar scents, and one unfamiliar one. I realised that practically my entire family was crammed into whichever room I was resting in. And I hadn't heard a thing from any of them. Nothing.

Oh, crap.

I felt one cold hand easily, gently, brushing my hair from my forehead, and a stinging pain just above my eyebrow. The coolness made it hurt. I winced, mentally.

The owner of the cool hand removed it from my head, and I heard my dad speak.

"Jacob, would you please take over here for me? I want to try something."

"Uh, yeah, sure. Why?" Jacob replied with confusion in his voice, and I felt a large warm hand stroking my head where the cold one once was. The warmth of Jacob's hand made the ache in my head _that_ much easier to handle. It was soothing, and comforting, and everything that I knew I wanted, but couldn't have. Forbidden Fruit.

"She's stubborn, that one. Just like her mother," my dad said again, to no one in particular.

"Why? Is this working, or not?" Jacob asked hurriedly. He sounded worried, but about what? Surely it wasn't me.

"Yes, Jacob. It's working. My cold hand was making her head hurt more, whereas your warm hand is calming her. Thank you," my dad replied. "And as for the stubbornness, you'll both work that part out yourselves."

I opened my eyes and a collective gasp echoed from both momma and daddy, and also from Jacob.

Jacob's huge black eyes bore into me from above. He hovered above me carefully, with one hand placed on my forehead, the other one on the other side of my head. He looked at me with so much love, that I knew I was must have been concussed.

"Nessie, honey, I'm so glad you're back with us," Jacob sighed. "I was so _so_ worried about you."

"Jacob," I groaned. I turned my head very carefully to my right and saw momma's big golden eyes, wide and staring at me. She had a pained look on her face, and if she could have cried, I'm very sure she would have.

"Momma," I croaked. I held my hand out to her and she was at my side in an instant. Daddy joined her and I hugged them as I felt the tears slowly start to fall.

All I wanted was My Jacob, and damn it if I wasn't totally selfish but I was the one who was sick. They should give me what I want.

"Can I have a minute, please?" I asked them. I really wanted to speak with Jacob on my own.

"Of course, honey. We were just here to make sure you were okay," daddy said. He gave Jacob a pointed look and Jacob stood up. They moved at human speed towards the door. Jacob looked at me with a look that I couldn't quite distinguish, and then _he followed momma and daddy out the door_! Damn it all to Hell.

I knew he was upset with me, but I never once thought that he wouldn't even want to talk to me. I thought our friendship was stronger than that.

The tears began to flow in earnest then, when I realised how much I had messed everything up. I lay there for I don't know how long, when I noticed Pa in the corner messing with some things on a small sterile metal table. I hadn't seen him there before, but I'm sure that's where he would have been all along.

"Pa," I wailed. "Why does it hurt so much?" I felt grief weighing me down, and I knew I couldn't do this for much longer.

He flew to my side and checked the beeping monitors that I hadn't noticed before.

"Where does it hurt, Renesmee?" he asked. I tapped the place on my chest, twice, right over my heart.

"It hurts here," I sobbed. "It hurts real bad, Pa."

He poked and prodded some more, and listened to my heart. He didn't need a stethoscope, with his super-vampire-ears. When he had decided that there was nothing physically wrong with my heart, he stepped away from me and leaned on the wall with his arms crossed across his chest. He nodded slowly to himself with a knowing smile. I hated that. I grimaced.

"You'll be just fine, Renesmee. Would you like me to get anybody for you to talk to?"

I thought about that for a second. I _wanted_ to talk to Jacob. My Jacob. The one who listened to me whinge, or ramble, or talk about nonsense; the one who didn't care, and who laughed with me, or cried with me. But that Jacob was long gone.

"Leah please, Pa," I decided. I watched Pa as he nodded, fiddling with some tubes that were attached to needles protruding from a couple of different places on my body. He squeezed a bag of something clear into my veins, and I felt a little woozy. It must have been some seriously strong shit, because human medications don't usually work on me.

There was a soft knock on the door only a couple of seconds later and Leah entered.

"Sorry, Ness. I was on my way up and Jake said you wanted some time alone, so I stopped, but then I heard you say that you want to talk to me, so I came right up," Leah said, as she pulled up a chair next to me. I had forgotten that we were in a house full of super-ears.

A fresh bucket of tears began spilling down my face, and I heard Leah scoot her chair a little closer.

"Shh, Nessie. It's really going to be okay. It's just a small cut, it will heal –" Leah began. I cried even harder, my whole body heaving with my sobs.

"It's not the damn cut, Leah! I don't care if my face is burned and covered in thousands of vampire bites!" I cried.

"So, what is it then?" Leah enquired, gently swiping at my tears.

"I can't l-live without J-J-Jacob, but he won't even l-look at me. He h- hates me!" I could barely string a full sentence together, I was crying so hard, so I could be forgiven for almost missing the creak of the door when it opened, and the enormous warm arms that wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me up as gently as they could into a tight embrace.

My Jacob.

Leah rose from her chair and gave me a quick kiss on the forehead. "I'll give you two a minute. You have a lot to talk about."

**Jacobs POV**

"Nessie, honey, I'm so glad you're back with us," I sighed. "I was so _so_ worried about you."

My Ness was awake, and all was good in the world. I looked down at her frail body and that horrible gash on her head. I was just so relieved that she was okay. She was okay.

"Jacob," she whispered. She made my name sound so unbelievably sexy. Nessie looked over to where Bella stood, so still that I had almost forgotten she was there. They hugged, and Edward joined in also.

I really just wanted to have a minute or two alone with Ness, so I could explain to her that I was not upset with her for what she said. I needed to tell her that it was the exact opposite. I looked around the room at Carlisle who was sterilising some surgical instruments in the corner of his office. He gave me a curt nod and turned his attention back to his tools. I sincerely hoped he wouldn't need to use any of those on My Ness.

I heard Ness ask if she could have some time alone. "Can I have a minute, please?" she asked. I guessed I wouldn't be getting that time to talk to her, then. Edward gave me a look that could only have said 'out' and I didn't need to be told twice. If there was anything I had learnt in my time with the Cullens, it was that if Edward told me to do something, I should do it. So I got up, and followed Edward and Bells downstairs.

Half way down the stairs I nearly turned back around. I heard Ness's cries of pain get louder, and all I wanted to do was hold her. My poor Ness was in pain, and nothing I could do would help her. My heart was breaking at the sounds that her sobs made.

I sat on the stairs, and Edward turned to face me.

"Jacob?" he looked at me questioningly.

I buried my face in my hands, and leaned my elbows on my knees.

"I can't sit here and listen to her in so much pain, Ed."

"Jacob, she didn't want you to leave, she wanted you to stay and talk to her. Why did you leave?" Edward asked me.

"Because you told me to!" I said, shocked at his revelation.

"No, I didn't."

"You _looked_ at me," I said, making no sense at all.

"I was trying to tell you to stay, Jacob. I don't like my daughter to be hurting either."

I had nothing to say to that, so we sat on the step in silence until Leah came up the stairs.

"She's having some alone time, Lee," I sighed.

"Oh. Okay." Leah sat beside me and Edward left to go and find Bella, who had continued on her way to update our Aboriginal friends on Nessie's progress.

I heard Carlisle ask Nessie where it hurt, after she had cried out in pain. I winced at the thought of My Ness being in any kind of pain. I almost couldn't tolerate it. The sound of Nessie's sobs filtered down to us through the walls. I put my head in my hands again, and shook it back and forth. Leah took one of my hands and held it in hers. We sat together for a minute before Leah spoke.

"You know I don't understand the power of the imprint, Jacob," she began.

"Yeah, whatever."

"But I do understand the power of love. Sam taught me that. And I also understand the way that you and Nessie feel about each other." I hoped that Leah was getting to the point.

"Cut to the chase, Lee," I said sharply.

"She doesn't even know about the imprint, Jacob, and she still loves you."

Then I heard Carlisle ask Nessie if she wanted to see anyone. My heart stopped while I waited to hear what she said. Please say me, Nessie baby. Say my name.

"Leah please, Pa," I heard her say. My heart sunk.

Leah stood quickly, and raced up the remaining stairs to the top floor. She knocked and without waiting for an answer, I heard her enter.

How could I have made such a huge mistake. I responded inappropriately for all of a second, and now Ness couldn't even bare to be in the same room as me.

I'd stuffed up, big time.

Blondie walked past me to the second floor, and kicked me as she walked past. She smirked and said "hey dog," and smiled down to me. "Thanks for bringing Nessie home to us," she said.

"You knew I would," I grunted.

"Jacob?" she hesitated.

"Blondie."

"Thanks for coming back, too."

"You knew I would."

I could still hear Nessie's sobs as Rosalie continued up the stairs.

"It's not the damn cut, Leah! I don't care if my face is burned and covered in thousands of vampire bites!" she sobbed. Oh my poor, poor Ness. I would never let you get burned or bitten, and especially not both. Nothing would ever get close enough.

"So, what is it then?" Leah said.

"I can't l-live without J-J-Jacob, but he won't even l-look at me. He h- hates me!"

Oh my god, how had I gotten things so incredibly wrong. I had hurt My Ness again.

I leapt to my feet and within a second, I was at My Nessies side. She looked so _sad_. As gently as I could, I scooped my girl up and hugged it. I tried to put as much feeling in to it as I possibly could. I wanted My Ness to know that everything was okay, that I didn't, I couldn't, hate her. I would never. I wanted her to know how very much I loved her. And I wanted her to feel it all in that embrace. I wasn't ever going to let her go.

Leah kissed Ness lightly on the forehead, and whatever she said, I didn't hear. She left, closing the door behind her.

"Ness , I –" I hesitated.

_No idiot, don't stuff it up again, _I thought.

"I'm so sorry, Ness, honey. I'm so, so sorry." I stroked her hair lightly as I held her tightly against my chest.

"No, Jacob. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I said that stuff, I know it was inappropriate," she sobbed.

"Shh, Ness, it's okay honey." We must have sat there, rocking gently back and forth for an hour. I was revelling in having My Nessie back, safe and sound, for the most part.

"I shouldn't have run away like that, Jacob. It was childish of me," Ness said after a while. She tilted her head up to look at me, and I pulled her gently away from my chest so that I could look in to her eyes.

"No honey, I hurt you. I shouldn't have been eavesdropping. I know that," I confessed.

Nessie cleared her throat. She opened her mouth to speak, and then abruptly closed it again.

"What is it, honey?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"Ness, I know I reacted badly before, but I want you to know that you really can tell me anything. You know that, right?" She looked up at me through her lashes, with those big brown eyes that melted holes in me.

"Yeah, I know," she sighed.

"So then, what's the matter?" I asked. "I'm not stupid Ness. I can see straight through you."

She looked horrified.

"Not literally, honey," I said, still stroking her hair.

"Mmn." I watched her cheeks as they turned crimson.

"Jacob?"

"Yeah, Ness?"

"Why are you here?" she said, matter-of-factly.

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, why are you here right now, after what I said?"

"I don't understand Nessie. Don't you want me here, honey?" _ Please want me here, honey. _"I'll go if you want me to." _But I'll be devastated if that's what you decide._

"I, um,"

"Ness, you need to be straight with me right now."

"Of course I want you here, Jacob. I – despite everything I said _to Leah_, I meant it all. I know it changes everything between us, and that we'll never be the same, but I can't live a lie, Jacob."

"Spit it out, Nessie."

"I understand if you don't want to be my friend anymore, Jacob. But I would much rather have you as my friend than nothing at all." She sighed. I could see she was still hurting, but I didn't quite understand what she was trying to say. She sat back in the makeshift bed, away from me, and fixed me with one of _those_ stares.

"I'm in love with you, Jacob, and I understand –"

"No, Ness, you _don't_ understand!" I interrupted.

I was getting flabbergasted. How could she not know? I flew to Nessie's side and wrapped my arms around her. As if in slow motion, I put my finger under her chin and tilted her face up to mine.

"I love _you_, Nessie. I'm _in_ love with you."

And then I kissed her - our very first kiss.

I hadn't kissed anybody like this for over seven years, but it was just like riding a bike, right?

Wrong.

Kissing Ness was nothing like I had ever experienced before. It was soft, it was warm, it was sloppy, we crunched noses, we smashed lips, but to me, it was absolutely perfect. I swear I felt the earth move, and heard a noise somewhat similar to windchimes ringing gently in the background. I saw stars too.

Our movements slowed and our lips moved in sync with each other. Her arms wound around my neck and pulled me closer to her. Her fingers were intertwined with my hair. She made this sexy-as-hell moaning noise that vibrated all the way through me, and I knew it was time to stop when she started to go limp in my arms.

"Ness, honey, are you okay?" I looked at her. She looked... blissful. She sighed a happy, contented kind of sigh. I smiled.

And the best bit? She smiled back at me.

"I'm more than okay, Jacob."

I chuckled when I heard The Cullens, The Wolves, Jarrah and Alkina. They were wolf whistling, pun intended, clapping and cheering. Even Edward was clapping. I could hear Emmett above all the other voices yelling 'Go, Nessie, Go!' and I distinctly heard the crack of marble on marble when Blondie smacked him upside the head.


	8. New love

**A/N – Firstly, I have to apologise over and over again for the lateness of this chapter. I hit a serious case of Brick-Wall-itis, and didn't really know where to send this chapter. I also started two new summer subjects for my Uni course, and one of them is Creative Writing, so I've had to do some work on my original piece. On the upside though, i'm doing a oneshot loosely based on Alice's human years, right before she was made a vampire...**

**I think this chapter might be a little bit of fluff, but hopefully in the next couple of chapters, we're getting to some good stuff... **

**And as always, keep reviewing. Let me know what you all think.**

* * *

Romeo save me, they try to tell me how to feel  
This love is difficult, but it's real  
Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess  
It's a love story, baby just say yes...

_-- Love Story, Taylor Swift._

* * *

**Edwards POV...**

Standing in the living room, next to my beautiful wife, staring through the glass window, I realised something.

My daughter was growing up. I hadn't expected it to happen so soon, but I knew it would happen eventually. I had hoped not for 100 years, but you know how it is with humans; it's seems to be fairly similar for half-humans too, only it took half the time.

I took Bella by the hand and glanced down at her, knowing that she was thinking the same thing as I, even though I could not actually read her mind. She looked up at me, squarely in to my eyes, and ever so slightly tilted her head, lightly tugging on my hand to indicate that she wished for me to join her outside. I nodded, once, and we walked together through the front door. I could still hear the horrifying noises coming from the upstairs bedroom. I knew perfectly well what they were, but I would remove and scrub my own brain with soap until it was completely clean before I admitted that my daughter was kissing Jacob Black.

We were too close to the house. I could still hear Emmett's booming voice echo around us.

"Go, Nessie, go!" he was cheering.

"Remind me to smack him one when we go back inside," I grunted as we wandered. As much as I hated what Renesmee was doing up there, I'd be damned if I was going to let Emmett give her a hard time about it.

We stopped walking when we reached the tree line. The trees were sparse here, so we couldn't just 'take off' like we used to, but I wanted to be nearby anyway... just in case things got... out of control.

I turned around and sat down on the ground. Bella threw herself down next to me, much more gracefully than she would have if she were still human. Her blue jeans and stylish green sweater looked stunning on her. I laughed as I wrapped my arm around her shoulders.

"She's growing up," I stated, shrugging my shoulders in a very matter-of-fact kind of way.

"You knew that this would happen one day, Edward." Bella was right; she was _always_ right.

"I know," I sighed. "Doesn't mean I have to be happy about it."

"Oh, come on!" Bella nudged me in the ribs with her elbow. "What did you think would happen when she woke up? We knew why she ran away in the first place, so we knew that her feelings for Jacob were changing. And we've always known how Jacob felt about Renesmee. So tell me, Edward. What exactly did _you_ think would happen?" She leaned in to me as she spoke.

I didn't answer, but we both knew the unspoken words that hung between us. My daughter was in love with Jacob Black – Werewolf Extraordinare. Super.

I raised my face when I heard footsteps heading towards us. Jarrah and Alkina stood in front of my love and I, talking animatedly between themselves. Alkina gracefully inclined her head in the direction of the trees, and turned to face me.

"We're headin' out on the hunt," Alkina said, her Australian accent coming through very strongly. "That cool with you?" She grinned a wide, toothy grin, that would have made any human cringe.

I chuckled quietly and glanced at Bella. A smile was playing on the edge of her lips and I knew then that she found the Australian slang just as odd as I did.

"Things seem to be heatin' up, in there. Glad to see they got their shit together," Jarrah smiled, indicating the house with a tilt of his head. "Must be awkward for you two, though."

"Thank you, Jarrah, for pointing that out. We came out here to give them some privacy. I'm sure Renesmee does not need her parents listening in on her, um, _conversation _with Jacob," I said. I had 'The Grumps', as Renesmee would have said.

"Yeah mate, that's kind of why we're headin' out, I guess. You wanna come with?" Jarrah asked.

"No, thank you, Jarrah. I'd like to hang around here in case our daughter needs us. But thank you for the offer," Bella quickly interjected.

"No probs," Alkina said, with a shrug. "See ya!" she added, waving briefly as they took off in a blur towards the trees.

I sighed, a deep depressing sigh.

"So, where to from here?" I asked my love.

"I suppose we should just be there for her, Edward; be there for both of them." Bella looked at me, and I could picture with perfect clarity how her beautiful golden eyes had once looked – a deep chocolate brown, so deep that I could drown in them. "We have to support them."

We sat for a while, just enjoying each other's company. I envied the way that Bella's skin shimmered in tones of blue, purple, green and pink. Beautiful just wasn't the word for it. She easily rubbed her hands along my thigh, and intertwined her fingers with mine. If I wasn't sure that I needed to be here for Renesmee, and too scared to go back into the house, I would have whisked her off to our room for an impromptu 'sleep'.

I smelt Jacob's approach before I 'heard' him. When I did hear him though, he was reciting the lyrics to 'Twinkle twinkle', Jacob style, in his head.

_Twinkle, twinkle, little star, daddy drives a motor car..._

"Bella, love, shield him please. I have no desire to hear the rest of that verse, nor the thoughts that would be going through his head otherwise," I requested.

She looked at me, puzzled, and Jacob's thoughts instantly quietened.

"Thank you," I said. I indicated the ground in front of me, and Jacob took a seat, sitting back on his heels.

"Edward," Jacob began. "Would it... er... be okay with you, if, I, um.." he stuttered. His foot kicked the dirt in front of us, sending a dust cloud in Bella's direction. I had never known Jacob to be so nervous about anything before, and I had known him for several years now. I glared at him and cleared my throat.

"Spit it out, Jacob. I don't usually bite," I chuckled. It was difficult, trying to ease his tension, although I wasn't sure if I wanted to. It was fun to watch him squirm. Bella chuckled next to me.

"Maybe Bella shouldn't shield me," Jacob grumbled. "It would be a lot easier to explain if you could hear it in my head, instead."

"You're cute when you pout, Jake," Bella said. That earned a stern glare from me, and a laugh from Jacob. It made the atmosphere a little less thick, also.

"I'll tell Ness that you said that," Jacob laughed.

"So? She thinks you're cute when you pout too!" Bella replied.

Jacob grinned at my Bella. When he turned to face me, his smile stiffened, and no longer looked natural.

"Please don't hate me, Edward," Jacob begged.

Jumping to my feet, I recoiled in shock. "Hate you, Jacob?" For what? "What did you do?" I demanded. "You better not have pushed her!"

"I did _not_ push her, Edward. I would _never_ force Ness into something that she wasn't ready for!" Jacob growled, leaping to his feet. His fists were balled, and shaking at his sides.

"Jake, calm down," Bella said, springing to her feet, also. She reached up to place her hands as close to his shoulders as she could reach, and the shaking slowed.

"I'm sorry, Edward. I – I'm just, nervous, I guess." He apologised. "I haven't had a relationship with anyone for about nine years, and I'm a bit out of practice." He grimaced when he spoke, and I could see that this was embarrassing for him.

"Jacob, you know that since Renesmee was born, I have considered you to be my Son. So please, do not make this any harder than it needs to be. As long as you treat my daughter with respect, and do not push yourself on her, we will continue to support your relationship. Just use your head, Jacob," I said. I offered out my hand to him in a gesture of solidarity, and he shook it. My hand was not small, by any means, but his hand still encased mine.

"Jake, I think what Edward is trying to say, is that you have our permission to date our daughter," Bella said, putting it in to simpler terms for him.

Jacob's head turned to look at me, then back to Bella, and back to me again. He repeated this action several times before I shook my head, laughing. His grin was plastered on, stretching right across his face.

"You look like a bobble head doll, Jacob Black," I grinned. "Now go back to my daughter, before I change my mind." Jacob hugged both Bella and I tightly, before dashing back to the house, kicking up the dust behind him, leaving my Wife and I in his wake.

* * *

**Renesmee's POV**

It had only been 30 seconds, but my arms felt so incredibly empty. I had only had my Jacob in them for less than a couple of minutes, but the instant that he left my warm embrace, I felt empty.

He left to go and talk to Daddy. I think Uncle Em had scared him a bit, when he realised that everybody could hear us. We were only kissing, but it spooked him nonetheless. Jacob said he needed to go check that Daddy was okay with this – with us.

So, against every instinct I had, I let My Jacob go.

I was browsing the books in my bookcase awaiting Jacob's return, when after a minute or so, Leah materialised on the edge of my bed. Sometimes I wondered if she wasn't part vampire, she was so fast. She grinned at me like a Cheshire Cat.

I couldn't help but grin back at her. I turned and leaned my back against my bookcase.

"Can I help you, Leah?" I asked. I knew exactly why she was there.

She patted the bed beside her, and I wandered over.

"It's about bloody time that you two got your act together," she said. "I was about ready to beat your heads together, if you didn't figure it out soon!"

"Thanks, I think," I laughed. I'm sure she would have sounded much more menacing if she wasn't grinning so much.

"For a half-vampire, you sure are slow."

"Again, thanks!" I said.

"In all seriousness, though, Nessie, I just wanted to say congratulations," Leah said. She put her arm around my shoulders and squeezed gently. "I was really worried when you took off. Promise me you won't ever do that to me again," she said.

"As long as Jacob is willing to have me, Leah, I'll be here." This time, I really couldn't keep the grin off my face. I felt like my cheeks were about to fall off my face, they were stretched that tightly.

She sat with me for a minute, in silence.

"You know, you and Jake are more suited to each other than you know, Nessie." Leah was the first to break the silence.

"Yeah? Why's that Lee Lee?" I asked.

"Jake had the same dream as you."

I laughed. "I have dreams all the time, Leah, which one?"

She shrugged. "The one where you were kissing each other."

"Leah, I have lots of those dreams, and you know what? It's okay to admit that now, right?" I grinned at her.

I noticed that Leah looked a little troubled. She didn't smile at me like she had before, but the corners of her mouth did turn up slightly.

"Let's go downstairs, Nessie," Leah suggested.

I was suddenly nervous. I didn't know how the rest of the family would react to this. I mean, Jacob had been my best friend for as long as I could remember. As far as my family knew, this is how we would be for the rest of our lives. And then I had selfishly gone and changed that. So yes, I was nervous. Leah laughed.

"Nessie, I can hear your heartbeat sweetie. It's racing. There's nothing to be scared of, you know. They're your family, they love you," she soothed.

"I – I know. I guess I'm just a little worried. They would never have seen this coming. Even Aunt Alice wouldn't have, because she can't see past you three."

"Nessie, I don't want to burst that little bubble of yours, but I have a feeling that they've been preparing for this," Leah scoffed.

"But – why – what do you mean? How on earth would they have known that I would fall in love with Jacob?" I asked. I was getting confused. She made it sound like this was to be expected! Did all best friends fall in love with each other in the end?

"I – nothing, Nessie." Leah stumbled over her words. "It's nothing, just an obvious thing, I guess. It was obvious how you and Jake felt about each other," she finished, turning her head away.

"Oh." That was all I could manage to think of to say.

"Yeah," she said. "Let's go downstairs." Leah stood up quickly, and grabbing my hand, we raced from the room, together, to meet the mob.

* * *

**I'm not sure what's going to happen next, but I know that somewhere in the next couple of chapters, _somebody_ needs to approach the whole 'imprinting' thing with Nessie.. I wonder how she will react.. ;)**


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